Cross-system storage management for transferring data across autonomous information management systems

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed for cross-system storage management for transferring data across autonomous information management systems. Data may be transferred from one information management system to another information management system without interfering with or overriding each system&#39;s autonomy. For example, a secondary copy of production data (e.g., backed up data) is transferred from a first information management system that originated the data to a component of another “foreign” information management system. A first storage manager that manages the first information management system also manages the cross-system data transfer operation to a “foreign” client computing device, which remains under autonomous management as a component of the foreign information management system.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/198,517, which was filed on Mar. 5, 2014 with the title of“Cross-System Storage Management for Transferring Data across AutonomousInformation Management Systems.” Any and all applications for which aforeign and/or domestic priority claim is identified in the ApplicationData Sheet of the present application are hereby incorporated byreference under 37 CFR 1.57.

BACKGROUND

Businesses worldwide recognize the commercial value of their data andseek reliable, cost-effective ways to protect the information stored ontheir computer networks while minimizing impact on productivity.Protecting information is often part of a routine process that isperformed within an organization. A company might back up criticalcomputing systems such as databases, file servers, web servers, and soon as part of a daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance schedule. Thecompany may similarly protect computing systems used by each of itsemployees, such as those used by an accounting department, marketingdepartment, engineering department, and so forth.

Given the rapidly expanding volume of data under management, companiesalso continue to seek innovative techniques for managing data growth, inaddition to protecting data. For instance, companies often implementmigration techniques for moving data to lower cost storage over time anddata reduction techniques for reducing redundant data, pruning lowerpriority data, etc. Enterprises also increasingly view their stored dataas a valuable asset. Along these lines, customers are looking forsolutions that not only protect and manage, but also leverage theirdata. For instance, solutions providing data analysis capabilities,information management, improved data presentation and access features,and the like, are in increasing demand.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1B is a detailed view of a primary storage device, a secondarystorage device, and some examples of primary data and secondary copydata.

FIG. 1C is a block diagram of an exemplary information management systemincluding a storage manager, one or more data agents, and one or moremedia agents.

FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a scalable informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1E illustrates certain secondary copy operations according to anexemplary storage policy.

FIGS. 1F-1H are block diagrams illustrating suitable data structuresthat may be employed by the information management system.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating some salient portions of asystem 200 for transferring one client's data from the secondary storagesubsystem of an information management system to a different client inanother, autonomous, information management system.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram detailing some elements of system 200.

FIG. 2C is a block diagram detailing some additional elements of system200.

FIG. 3 depicts some salient operations of a method 300 according to anillustrative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 depicts some salient operations of a method 400 according to anillustrative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 depicts some salient operations of a method 500 according to analternative illustrative embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are disclosed for cross-system storage managementfor transferring data across autonomous information management systems.Data may be transferred from one information management system toanother information management system such that the autonomy of eachsystem is respected. For example, a secondary copy of production data(e.g., backed up data) is transferred from secondary storage in a firstinformation management system, which originated the data, to a componentof another (“foreign”) information management system, e.g., a foreignclient. A first storage manager that manages the first informationmanagement system also manages the cross-system data transfer operationto the foreign component. The first storage manager is provided with aminimum of information about the foreign component, enough to allow forthe data transfer thereto, but not enough to actively manage the foreigncomponent. The foreign component (e.g., foreign client) remains underautonomous management as a component of the foreign informationmanagement system. Examples of such systems and methods are described infurther detail herein, e.g., in regard to FIGS. 2-5. Cross-systemstorage management components and functionality may be configured and/orincorporated into information management systems such as those describedherein in FIGS. 1A-1H.

Information Management System Overview

With the increasing importance of protecting and leveraging data,organizations simply cannot afford to take the risk of losing criticaldata. Moreover, runaway data growth and other modern realities makeprotecting and managing data an increasingly difficult task. There istherefore a need for efficient, powerful, and user-friendly solutionsfor protecting and managing data.

Depending on the size of the organization, there are typically many dataproduction sources which are under the purview of tens, hundreds, oreven thousands of employees or other individuals. In the past,individual employees were sometimes responsible for managing andprotecting their data. A patchwork of hardware and software pointsolutions has been applied in other cases. These solutions were oftenprovided by different vendors and had limited or no interoperability.Certain embodiments described herein provide systems and methods capableof addressing these and other shortcomings of prior approaches byimplementing unified, organization-wide information management.

FIG. 1A shows one such information management system 100, whichgenerally includes combinations of hardware and software configured toprotect and manage data and metadata generated and used by the variouscomputing devices in the information management system 100.

The organization which employs the information management system 100 maybe a corporation or other business entity, non-profit organization,educational institution, household, governmental agency, or the like.

Generally, the systems and associated components described herein may becompatible with and/or provide some or all of the functionality of thesystems and corresponding components described in one or more of thefollowing U.S. patents and patent application publications assigned toCommVault Systems, Inc., each of which is hereby incorporated in itsentirety by reference herein:

-   -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,681, entitled “Data Object Store and Server        for a Cloud Storage Environment, Including Data Deduplication        and Data Management Across Multiple Cloud Storage Sites”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,177, entitled “Systems And Methods For        Management Of Virtualization Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, entitled “Modular Backup and Retrieval        System Used in Conjunction With a Storage Area Network”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, entitled “Hierarchical Systems and        Methods for Providing a Unified View of Storage Information”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282, entitled “Hierarchical Backup and        Retrieval System”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, entitled “System and Method for        Dynamically Performing Storage Operations in a Computer        Network”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,579, entitled “Metabase for Facilitating        Data Classification”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,954, entitled “Managing Copies of Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, entitled “System and Methods for        Monitoring Application Data in a Data Replication System”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, entitled “System and Methods for        Performing a Snapshot and for Restoring Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled “System And Method For        Performing Auxiliary Storage Operations”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,315,923, entitled “System And Method For        Combining Data Streams In Pipelined Storage Operations In A        Storage Network”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652, entitled “Content-Aligned, Block-Based        Deduplication”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled “System and Method to        Support Single Instance Storage Operations”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,578,120, entitled “Block-Level Single        Instancing”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0319534, entitled “Application-Aware and        Remote Single Instance Data Management”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, entitled “Distributed        Deduplicated Storage System”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150818, entitled “Client-Side        Repository in a Networked Deduplicated Storage System”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, entitled “Method and System for Offline        Indexing of Content and Classifying Stored Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298, entitled “System And Method For        Archiving Objects In An Information Store”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled “System And Method For        Performing Auxiliary Storage Operations”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,954, entitled “Managing Copies Of Data”; and    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, entitled “Systems And Methods For        Stored Data Verification”.

The information management system 100 can include a variety of differentcomputing devices. For instance, as will be described in greater detailherein, the information management system 100 can include one or moreclient computing devices 102 and secondary storage computing devices106.

Computing devices can include, without limitation, one or more:workstations, personal computers, desktop computers, or other types ofgenerally fixed computing systems such as mainframe computers andminicomputers.

Other computing devices can include mobile or portable computingdevices, such as one or more laptops, tablet computers, personal dataassistants, mobile phones (such as smartphones), and other mobile orportable computing devices such as embedded computers, set top boxes,vehicle-mounted devices, wearable computers, etc. Computing devices caninclude servers, such as mail servers, file servers, database servers,and web servers.

In some cases, a computing device includes virtualized and/or cloudcomputing resources. For instance, one or more virtual machines may beprovided to the organization by a third-party cloud service vendor. Or,in some embodiments, computing devices can include one or more virtualmachine(s) running on a physical host computing device (or “hostmachine”) operated by the organization. As one example, the organizationmay use one virtual machine as a database server and another virtualmachine as a mail server, both virtual machines operating on the samehost machine.

A virtual machine includes an operating system and associated virtualresources, and is hosted simultaneously with another operating system ona physical host computer (or host machine). A hypervisor (typicallysoftware, and also known in the art as a virtual machine monitor or avirtual machine manager or “VMM”) sits between the virtual machine andthe hardware of the physical host computer. One example of hypervisor asvirtualization software is ESX Server, by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto,Calif.; other examples include Microsoft Virtual Server and MicrosoftWindows Server Hyper-V, both by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.,and Sun xVM by Oracle America Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. In someembodiments, the hypervisor may be firmware or hardware or a combinationof software and/or firmware and/or hardware.

The hypervisor provides to each virtual operating system virtualresources, such as a virtual processor, virtual memory, a virtualnetwork device, and a virtual disk. Each virtual machine has one or morevirtual disks. The hypervisor typically stores the data of virtual disksin files on the file system of the physical host computer, calledvirtual machine disk files (in the case of VMware virtual servers) orvirtual hard disk image files (in the case of Microsoft virtualservers). For example, VMware's ESX Server provides the Virtual MachineFile System (VMFS) for the storage of virtual machine disk files. Avirtual machine reads data from and writes data to its virtual disk muchthe same way that an actual physical machine reads data from and writesdata to an actual disk.

Examples of techniques for implementing information managementtechniques in a cloud computing environment are described in U.S. Pat.No. 8,285,681, which is incorporated by reference herein. Examples oftechniques for implementing information management techniques in avirtualized computing environment are described in U.S. Pat. No.8,307,177, also incorporated by reference herein.

The information management system 100 can also include a variety ofstorage devices, including primary storage devices 104 and secondarystorage devices 108, for example. Storage devices can generally be ofany suitable type including, without limitation, disk drives, hard-diskarrays, semiconductor memory (e.g., solid state storage devices),network attached storage (NAS) devices, tape libraries or othermagnetic, non-tape storage devices, optical media storage devices,DNA/RNA-based memory technology, combinations of the same, and the like.In some embodiments, storage devices can form part of a distributed filesystem. In some cases, storage devices are provided in a cloud (e.g., aprivate cloud or one operated by a third-party vendor). A storage devicein some cases comprises a disk array or portion thereof.

The illustrated information management system 100 includes one or moreclient computing device 102 having at least one application 110executing thereon, and one or more primary storage devices 104 storingprimary data 112. The client computing device(s) 102 and the primarystorage devices 104 may generally be referred to in some cases as aprimary storage subsystem 117. A computing device in an informationmanagement system 100 that has a data agent 142 installed on it isgenerally referred to as a client computing device 102 (or, in thecontext of a component of the information management system 100 simplyas a “client”).

Depending on the context, the term “information management system” canrefer to generally all of the illustrated hardware and softwarecomponents. Or, in other instances, the term may refer to only a subsetof the illustrated components.

For instance, in some cases, the information management system 100generally refers to a combination of specialized components used toprotect, move, manage, manipulate, analyze, and/or process data andmetadata generated by the client computing devices 102. However, theinformation management system 100 in some cases does not include theunderlying components that generate and/or store the primary data 112,such as the client computing devices 102 themselves, the applications110 and operating system residing on the client computing devices 102,and the primary storage devices 104. As an example, “informationmanagement system” may sometimes refer to one or more of the followingcomponents and corresponding data structures: storage managers, dataagents, and media agents. These components will be described in furtherdetail below.

Client Computing Devices

There are typically a variety of sources in an organization that producedata to be protected and managed. As just one illustrative example, in acorporate environment such data sources can be employee workstations andcompany servers such as a mail server, a web server, or the like. In theinformation management system 100, the data generation sources includethe one or more client computing devices 102.

The client computing devices 102 may include any of the types ofcomputing devices described above, without limitation, and in some casesthe client computing devices 102 are associated with one or more usersand/or corresponding user accounts, of employees or other individuals.

The information management system 100 generally addresses and handlesthe data management and protection needs for the data generated by theclient computing devices 102. However, the use of this term does notimply that the client computing devices 102 cannot be “servers” in otherrespects. For instance, a particular client computing device 102 may actas a server with respect to other devices, such as other clientcomputing devices 102. As just a few examples, the client computingdevices 102 can include mail servers, file servers, database servers,and web servers.

Each client computing device 102 may have one or more applications 110(e.g., software applications) executing thereon which generate andmanipulate the data that is to be protected from loss and managed.

The applications 110 generally facilitate the operations of anorganization (or multiple affiliated organizations), and can include,without limitation, mail server applications (e.g., Microsoft ExchangeServer), file server applications, mail client applications (e.g.,Microsoft Exchange Client), database applications (e.g., SQL, Oracle,SAP, Lotus Notes Database), word processing applications (e.g.,Microsoft Word), spreadsheet applications, financial applications,presentation applications, browser applications, mobile applications,entertainment applications, and so on.

The client computing devices 102 can have at least one operating system(e.g., Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, IBM z/OS, Linux, otherUnix-based operating systems, etc.) installed thereon, which may supportor host one or more file systems and other applications 110.

As shown, the client computing devices 102 and other components in theinformation management system 100 can be connected to one another viaone or more communication pathways 114. The communication pathways 114can include one or more networks or other connection types including asany of following, without limitation: the Internet, a wide area network(WAN), a local area network (LAN), a Storage Area Network (SAN), a FibreChannel connection, a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) connection,a virtual private network (VPN), a token ring or TCP/IP based network,an intranet network, a point-to-point link, a cellular network, awireless data transmission system, a two-way cable system, aninteractive kiosk network, a satellite network, a broadband network, abaseband network, a neural network, a mesh network, an ad hoc network,other appropriate wired, wireless, or partially wired/wireless computeror telecommunications networks, combinations of the same or the like.The communication pathways 114 in some cases may also includeapplication programming interfaces (APIs) including, e.g., cloud serviceprovider APIs, virtual machine management APIs, and hosted serviceprovider APIs.

Primary Data and Exemplary Primary Storage Devices

Primary data 112 according to some embodiments is production data orother “live” data generated by the operating system and otherapplications 110 residing on a client computing device 102. The primarydata 112 is generally stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and isorganized via a file system supported by the client computing device102. For instance, the client computing device(s) 102 and correspondingapplications 110 may create, access, modify, write, delete, andotherwise use primary data 112. In some cases, some or all of theprimary data 112 can be stored in cloud storage resources.

Primary data 112 is generally in the native format of the sourceapplication 110. According to certain aspects, primary data 112 is aninitial or first (e.g., created before any other copies or before atleast one other copy) stored copy of data generated by the sourceapplication 110. Primary data 112 in some cases is created substantiallydirectly from data generated by the corresponding source applications110.

The primary data 112 may sometimes be referred to as a “primary copy” inthe sense that it is a discrete set of data. However, the use of thisterm does not necessarily imply that the “primary copy” is a copy in thesense that it was copied or otherwise derived from another storedversion.

The primary storage devices 104 storing the primary data 112 may berelatively fast and/or expensive (e.g., a disk drive, a hard-disk array,solid state memory, etc.). In addition, primary data 112 may be intendedfor relatively short term retention (e.g., several hours, days, orweeks).

According to some embodiments, the client computing device 102 canaccess primary data 112 from the primary storage device 104 by makingconventional file system calls via the operating system. Primary data112 representing files may include structured data (e.g., databasefiles), unstructured data (e.g., documents), and/or semi-structureddata. Some specific examples are described below with respect to FIG.1B.

It can be useful in performing certain tasks to organize the primarydata 112 into units of different granularities. In general, primary data112 can include files, directories, file system volumes, data blocks,extents, or any other hierarchies or organizations of data objects. Asused herein, a “data object” can refer to both (1) any file that iscurrently addressable by a file system or that was previouslyaddressable by the file system (e.g., an archive file) and (2) a subsetof such a file (e.g., a data block).

As will be described in further detail, it can also be useful inperforming certain functions of the information management system 100 toaccess and modify metadata within the primary data 112. Metadatagenerally includes information about data objects or characteristicsassociated with the data objects.

Metadata can include, without limitation, one or more of the following:the data owner (e.g., the client or user that generates the data), thelast modified time (e.g., the time of the most recent modification ofthe data object), a data object name (e.g., a file name), a data objectsize (e.g., a number of bytes of data), information about the content(e.g., an indication as to the existence of a particular search term),user-supplied tags, to/from information for email (e.g., an emailsender, recipient, etc.), creation date, file type (e.g., format orapplication type), last accessed time, application type (e.g., type ofapplication that generated the data object), location/network (e.g., acurrent, past or future location of the data object and network pathwaysto/from the data object), geographic location (e.g., GPS coordinates),frequency of change (e.g., a period in which the data object ismodified), business unit (e.g., a group or department that generates,manages or is otherwise associated with the data object), aginginformation (e.g., a schedule, such as a time period, in which the dataobject is migrated to secondary or long term storage), boot sectors,partition layouts, file location within a file folder directorystructure, user permissions, owners, groups, access control lists[ACLs]), system metadata (e.g., registry information), combinations ofthe same or the other similar information related to the data object.

In addition to metadata generated by or related to file systems andoperating systems, some of the applications 110 and/or other componentsof the information management system 100 maintain indices of metadatafor data objects, e.g., metadata associated with individual emailmessages. Thus, each data object may be associated with correspondingmetadata. The use of metadata to perform classification and otherfunctions is described in greater detail below.

Each of the client computing devices 102 are generally associated withand/or in communication with one or more of the primary storage devices104 storing corresponding primary data 112. A client computing device102 may be considered to be “associated with” or “in communication with”a primary storage device 104 if it is capable of one or more of: routingand/or storing data to the particular primary storage device 104,coordinating the routing and/or storing of data to the particularprimary storage device 104, retrieving data from the particular primarystorage device 104, coordinating the retrieval of data from theparticular primary storage device 104, and modifying and/or deletingdata retrieved from the particular primary storage device 104.

The primary storage devices 104 can include any of the different typesof storage devices described above, or some other kind of suitablestorage device. The primary storage devices 104 may have relatively fastI/O times and/or are relatively expensive in comparison to the secondarystorage devices 108. For example, the information management system 100may generally regularly access data and metadata stored on primarystorage devices 104, whereas data and metadata stored on the secondarystorage devices 108 is accessed relatively less frequently.

In some cases, each primary storage device 104 is dedicated to anassociated client computing device 102. For instance, a primary storagedevice 104 in one embodiment is a local disk drive of a correspondingclient computing device 102. In other cases, one or more primary storagedevices 104 can be shared by multiple client computing devices 102,e.g., via a network such as in a cloud storage implementation. As oneexample, a primary storage device 104 can be a disk array shared by agroup of client computing devices 102, such as one of the followingtypes of disk arrays: EMC Clariion, EMC Symmetrix, EMC Celerra, DellEqualLogic, IBM XIV, NetApp FAS, HP EVA, and HP 3PAR.

The information management system 100 may also include hosted services(not shown), which may be hosted in some cases by an entity other thanthe organization that employs the other components of the informationmanagement system 100. For instance, the hosted services may be providedby various online service providers to the organization. Such serviceproviders can provide services including social networking services,hosted email services, or hosted productivity applications or otherhosted applications).

Hosted services may include software-as-a-service (SaaS),platform-as-a-service (PaaS), application service providers (ASPs),cloud services, or other mechanisms for delivering functionality via anetwork. As it provides services to users, each hosted service maygenerate additional data and metadata under management of theinformation management system 100, e.g., as primary data 112. In somecases, the hosted services may be accessed using one of the applications110. As an example, a hosted mail service may be accessed via browserrunning on a client computing device 102. The hosted services may beimplemented in a variety of computing environments. In some cases, theyare implemented in an environment having a similar arrangement to theinformation management system 100, where various physical and logicalcomponents are distributed over a network.

Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices

The primary data 112 stored on the primary storage devices 104 may becompromised in some cases, such as when an employee deliberately oraccidentally deletes or overwrites primary data 112 during their normalcourse of work. Or the primary storage devices 104 can be damaged orotherwise corrupted.

For recovery and/or regulatory compliance purposes, it is thereforeuseful to generate copies of the primary data 112. Accordingly, theinformation management system 100 includes one or more secondary storagecomputing devices 106 and one or more secondary storage devices 108configured to create and store one or more secondary copies 116 of theprimary data 112 and associated metadata. The secondary storagecomputing devices 106 and the secondary storage devices 108 maysometimes be referred to as a secondary storage subsystem 118.

Creation of secondary copies 116 can help in search and analysis effortsand meet other information management goals, such as: restoring dataand/or metadata if an original version (e.g., of primary data 112) islost (e.g., by deletion, corruption, or disaster); allowingpoint-in-time recovery; complying with regulatory data retention andelectronic discovery (e-discovery) requirements; reducing utilizedstorage capacity; facilitating organization and search of data;improving user access to data files across multiple computing devicesand/or hosted services; and implementing data retention policies.

The client computing devices 102 access or receive primary data 112 andcommunicate the data, e.g., over the communication pathways 114, forstorage in the secondary storage device(s) 108.

A secondary copy 116 can comprise a separate stored copy of applicationdata that is derived from one or more earlier-created, stored copies(e.g., derived from primary data 112 or another secondary copy 116).Secondary copies 116 can include point-in-time data, and may be intendedfor relatively long-term retention (e.g., weeks, months or years),before some or all of the data is moved to other storage or isdiscarded.

In some cases, a secondary copy 116 is a copy of application datacreated and stored subsequent to at least one other stored instance(e.g., subsequent to corresponding primary data 112 or to anothersecondary copy 116), in a different storage device than at least oneprevious stored copy, and/or remotely from at least one previous storedcopy. In some other cases, secondary copies can be stored in the samestorage device as primary data 112 and/or other previously storedcopies. For example, in one embodiment a disk array capable ofperforming hardware snapshots stores primary data 112 and creates andstores hardware snapshots of the primary data 112 as secondary copies116. Secondary copies 116 may be stored in relatively slow and/or lowcost storage (e.g., magnetic tape). A secondary copy 116 may be storedin a backup or archive format, or in some other format different thanthe native source application format or other primary data format.

In some cases, secondary copies 116 are indexed so users can browse andrestore at another point in time. After creation of a secondary copy 116representative of certain primary data 112, a pointer or other locationindicia (e.g., a stub) may be placed in primary data 112, or beotherwise associated with primary data 112 to indicate the currentlocation on the secondary storage device(s) 108.

Since an instance of a data object or metadata in primary data 112 maychange over time as it is modified by an application 110 (or hostedservice or the operating system), the information management system 100may create and manage multiple secondary copies 116 of a particular dataobject or metadata, each representing the state of the data object inprimary data 112 at a particular point in time. Moreover, since aninstance of a data object in primary data 112 may eventually be deletedfrom the primary storage device 104 and the file system, the informationmanagement system 100 may continue to manage point-in-timerepresentations of that data object, even though the instance in primarydata 112 no longer exists.

For virtualized computing devices the operating system and otherapplications 110 of the client computing device(s) 102 may executewithin or under the management of virtualization software (e.g., a VMM),and the primary storage device(s) 104 may comprise a virtual diskcreated on a physical storage device. The information management system100 may create secondary copies 116 of the files or other data objectsin a virtual disk file and/or secondary copies 116 of the entire virtualdisk file itself (e.g., of an entire .vmdk file).

Secondary copies 116 may be distinguished from corresponding primarydata 112 in a variety of ways, some of which will now be described.First, as discussed, secondary copies 116 can be stored in a differentformat (e.g., backup, archive, or other non-native format) than primarydata 112. For this or other reasons, secondary copies 116 may not bedirectly useable by the applications 110 of the client computing device102, e.g., via standard system calls or otherwise without modification,processing, or other intervention by the information management system100.

Secondary copies 116 are also in some embodiments stored on a secondarystorage device 108 that is inaccessible to the applications 110 runningon the client computing devices 102 (and/or hosted services). Somesecondary copies 116 may be “offline copies,” in that they are notreadily available (e.g., not mounted to tape or disk). Offline copiescan include copies of data that the information management system 100can access without human intervention (e.g., tapes within an automatedtape library, but not yet mounted in a drive), and copies that theinformation management system 100 can access only with at least somehuman intervention (e.g., tapes located at an offsite storage site).

The Use of Intermediate Devices For Creating Secondary Copies

Creating secondary copies can be a challenging task. For instance, therecan be hundreds or thousands of client computing devices 102 continuallygenerating large volumes of primary data 112 to be protected. Also,there can be significant overhead involved in the creation of secondarycopies 116. Moreover, secondary storage devices 108 may be specialpurpose components, and interacting with them can require specializedintelligence.

In some cases, the client computing devices 102 interact directly withthe secondary storage device 108 to create the secondary copies 116.However, in view of the factors described above, this approach cannegatively impact the ability of the client computing devices 102 toserve the applications 110 and produce primary data 112. Further, theclient computing devices 102 may not be optimized for interaction withthe secondary storage devices 108.

Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100includes one or more software and/or hardware components which generallyact as intermediaries between the client computing devices 102 and thesecondary storage devices 108. In addition to off-loading certainresponsibilities from the client computing devices 102, theseintermediate components can provide other benefits. For instance, asdiscussed further below with respect to FIG. 1D, distributing some ofthe work involved in creating secondary copies 116 can enhancescalability.

The intermediate components can include one or more secondary storagecomputing devices 106 as shown in FIG. 1A and/or one or more mediaagents, which can be software modules residing on correspondingsecondary storage computing devices 106 (or other appropriate devices).Media agents are discussed below (e.g., with respect to FIGS. 1C-1E).

The secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise any of thecomputing devices described above, without limitation. In some cases,the secondary storage computing device(s) 106 include specializedhardware and/or software componentry for interacting with the secondarystorage devices 108.

To create a secondary copy 116 involving the copying of data from theprimary storage subsystem 117 to the secondary storage subsystem 118,the client computing device 102 in some embodiments communicates theprimary data 112 to be copied (or a processed version thereof) to thedesignated secondary storage computing device 106, via the communicationpathway 114. The secondary storage computing device 106 in turn conveysthe received data (or a processed version thereof) to the secondarystorage device 108. In some such configurations, the communicationpathway 114 between the client computing device 102 and the secondarystorage computing device 106 comprises a portion of a LAN, WAN or SAN.In other cases, at least some client computing devices 102 communicatedirectly with the secondary storage devices 108 (e.g., via Fibre Channelor SCSI connections). In some other cases, one or more secondary copies116 are created from existing secondary copies, such as in the case ofan auxiliary copy operation, described in greater detail below.

Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy

FIG. 16 is a detailed view showing some specific examples of primarydata stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and secondary copy datastored on the secondary storage device(s) 108, with other components inthe system removed for the purposes of illustration. Stored on theprimary storage device(s) 104 are primary data objects including wordprocessing documents 119A-B, spreadsheets 120, presentation documents122, video files 124, image files 126, email mailboxes 128 (andcorresponding email messages 129A-C), html/xml or other types of markuplanguage files 130, databases 132 and corresponding tables or other datastructures 133A-133C).

Some or all primary data objects are associated with correspondingmetadata (e.g., “Meta1-11”), which may include file system metadataand/or application specific metadata. Stored on the secondary storagedevice(s) 108 are secondary copy data objects 134A-C which may includecopies of or otherwise represent corresponding primary data objects andmetadata.

As shown, the secondary copy data objects 134A-C can individuallyrepresent more than one primary data object. For example, secondary copydata object 134A represents three separate primary data objects 133C,122 and 129C (represented as 133C′, 122′ and 129C′, respectively, andaccompanied by the corresponding metadata Meta11, Meta3, and Meta8,respectively). Moreover, as indicated by the prime mark (′), a secondarycopy object may store a representation of a primary data object ormetadata differently than the original format, e.g., in a compressed,encrypted, deduplicated, or other modified format. Likewise, secondarydata object 1346 represents primary data objects 120, 1336, and 119A as120′, 1336′, and 119A′, respectively and accompanied by correspondingmetadata Meta2, Meta10, and Meta1, respectively. Also, secondary dataobject 134C represents primary data objects 133A, 1196, and 129A as133A′, 1196′, and 129A′, respectively, accompanied by correspondingmetadata Meta9, Meta5, and Meta6, respectively.

Exemplary Information Management System Architecture

The information management system 100 can incorporate a variety ofdifferent hardware and software components, which can in turn beorganized with respect to one another in many different configurations,depending on the embodiment. There are critical design choices involvedin specifying the functional responsibilities of the components and therole of each component in the information management system 100. Forinstance, as will be discussed, such design choices can impactperformance as well as the adaptability of the information managementsystem 100 to data growth or other changing circumstances.

FIG. 1C shows an information management system 100 designed according tothese considerations and which includes: storage manager 140, acentralized storage and/or information manager that is configured toperform certain control functions, one or more data agents 142 executingon the client computing device(s) 102 configured to process primary data112, and one or more media agents 144 executing on the one or moresecondary storage computing devices 106 for performing tasks involvingthe secondary storage devices 108. While distributing functionalityamongst multiple computing devices can have certain advantages, in othercontexts it can be beneficial to consolidate functionality on the samecomputing device. As such, in various other embodiments, one or more ofthe components shown in FIG. 1C as being implemented on separatecomputing devices are implemented on the same computing device. In oneconfiguration, a storage manager 140, one or more data agents 142, andone or more media agents 144 are all implemented on the same computingdevice. In another embodiment, one or more data agents 142 and one ormore media agents 144 are implemented on the same computing device,while the storage manager 140 is implemented on a separate computingdevice.

Storage Manager

As noted, the number of components in the information management system100 and the amount of data under management can be quite large. Managingthe components and data is therefore a significant task, and a task thatcan grow in an often unpredictable fashion as the quantity of componentsand data scale to meet the needs of the organization.

For these and other reasons, according to certain embodiments,responsibility for controlling the information management system 100, orat least a significant portion of that responsibility, is allocated tothe storage manager 140.

By distributing control functionality in this manner, the storagemanager 140 can be adapted independently according to changingcircumstances. Moreover, a computing device for hosting the storagemanager 140 can be selected to best suit the functions of the storagemanager 140. These and other advantages are described in further detailbelow with respect to FIG. 1D.

The storage manager 140 may be a software module or other application.In some embodiments, storage manager 140 is a computing devicecomprising circuitry for executing computer instructions and performsthe functions described herein. The storage manager generally initiates,performs, coordinates and/or controls storage and other informationmanagement operations performed by the information management system100, e.g., to protect and control the primary data 112 and secondarycopies 116 of data and metadata.

As shown by the dashed arrowed lines 114, the storage manager 140 maycommunicate with and/or control some or all elements of the informationmanagement system 100, such as the data agents 142 and media agents 144.Thus, in certain embodiments, control information originates from thestorage manager 140, whereas payload data and payload metadata isgenerally communicated between the data agents 142 and the media agents144 (or otherwise between the client computing device(s) 102 and thesecondary storage computing device(s) 106), e.g., at the direction ofthe storage manager 140. Control information can generally includeparameters and instructions for carrying out information managementoperations, such as, without limitation, instructions to perform a taskassociated with an operation, timing information specifying when toinitiate a task associated with an operation, data path informationspecifying what components to communicate with or access in carrying outan operation, and the like. Payload data, on the other hand, can includethe actual data involved in the storage operation, such as content datawritten to a secondary storage device 108 in a secondary copy operation.Payload metadata can include any of the types of metadata describedherein, and may be written to a storage device along with the payloadcontent data (e.g., in the form of a header).

In other embodiments, some information management operations arecontrolled by other components in the information management system 100(e.g., the media agent(s) 144 or data agent(s) 142), instead of or incombination with the storage manager 140.

According to certain embodiments, the storage manager 140 provides oneor more of the following functions:

-   -   initiating execution of secondary copy operations;    -   managing secondary storage devices 108 and inventory/capacity of        the same;    -   reporting, searching, and/or classification of data in the        information management system 100;    -   allocating secondary storage devices 108 for secondary storage        operations;    -   monitoring completion of and providing status reporting related        to secondary storage operations;    -   tracking age information relating to secondary copies 116,        secondary storage devices 108, and comparing the age information        against retention guidelines;    -   tracking movement of data within the information management        system 100;    -   tracking logical associations between components in the        information management system 100;    -   protecting metadata associated with the information management        system 100; and    -   implementing operations management functionality.

The storage manager 140 may maintain a database 146 (or “storage managerdatabase 146” or “management database 146”) of management-related dataand information management policies 148. The database 146 may include amanagement index 150 (or “index 150”) or other data structure thatstores logical associations between components of the system, userpreferences and/or profiles (e.g., preferences regarding encryption,compression, or deduplication of primary or secondary copy data,preferences regarding the scheduling, type, or other aspects of primaryor secondary copy or other operations, mappings of particularinformation management users or user accounts to certain computingdevices or other components, etc.), management tasks, mediacontainerization, or other useful data. For example, the storage manager140 may use the index 150 to track logical associations between mediaagents 144 and secondary storage devices 108 and/or movement of datafrom primary storage devices 104 to secondary storage devices 108. Forinstance, the index 150 may store data associating a client computingdevice 102 with a particular media agent 144 and/or secondary storagedevice 108, as specified in an information management policy 148 (e.g.,a storage policy, which is defined in more detail below).

Administrators and other employees may be able to manually configure andinitiate certain information management operations on an individualbasis. But while this may be acceptable for some recovery operations orother relatively less frequent tasks, it is often not workable forimplementing on-going organization-wide data protection and management.

Thus, the information management system 100 may utilize informationmanagement policies 148 for specifying and executing informationmanagement operations (e.g., on an automated basis). Generally, aninformation management policy 148 can include a data structure or otherinformation source that specifies a set of parameters (e.g., criteriaand rules) associated with storage or other information managementoperations.

The storage manager database 146 may maintain the information managementpolicies 148 and associated data, although the information managementpolicies 148 can be stored in any appropriate location. For instance, aninformation management policy 148 such as a storage policy may be storedas metadata in a media agent database 152 or in a secondary storagedevice 108 (e.g., as an archive copy) for use in restore operations orother information management operations, depending on the embodiment.Information management policies 148 are described further below.

According to certain embodiments, the storage manager database 146comprises a relational database (e.g., an SQL database) for trackingmetadata, such as metadata associated with secondary copy operations(e.g., what client computing devices 102 and corresponding data wereprotected). This and other metadata may additionally be stored in otherlocations, such as at the secondary storage computing devices 106 or onthe secondary storage devices 108, allowing data recovery without theuse of the storage manager 140.

As shown, the storage manager 140 may include a jobs agent 156, a userinterface 158, and a management agent 154, all of which may beimplemented as interconnected software modules or application programs.

The jobs agent 156 in some embodiments initiates, controls, and/ormonitors the status of some or all storage or other informationmanagement operations previously performed, currently being performed,or scheduled to be performed by the information management system 100.For instance, the jobs agent 156 may access information managementpolicies 148 to determine when and how to initiate and control secondarycopy and other information management operations, as will be discussedfurther.

The user interface 158 may include information processing and displaysoftware, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”), an applicationprogram interface (“API”), or other interactive interface(s) throughwhich users and system processes can retrieve information about thestatus of information management operations (e.g., storage operations)or issue instructions to the information management system 100 and itsconstituent components.

Via the user interface 158, users may optionally issue instructions tothe components in the information management system 100 regardingperformance of storage and recovery operations. For example, a user maymodify a schedule concerning the number of pending secondary copyoperations. As another example, a user may employ the GUI to view thestatus of pending storage operations or to monitor the status of certaincomponents in the information management system 100 (e.g., the amount ofcapacity left in a storage device).

An information management “cell” (or “storage operation cell” or “cell”)may generally include a logical and/or physical grouping of acombination of hardware and software components associated withperforming information management operations on electronic data,typically one storage manager 140 and at least one client computingdevice 102 (comprising data agent(s) 142) and at least one media agent144. For instance, the components shown in FIG. 1C may together form aninformation management cell. Multiple cells may be organizedhierarchically. With this configuration, cells may inherit propertiesfrom hierarchically superior cells or be controlled by other cells inthe hierarchy (automatically or otherwise). Alternatively, in someembodiments, cells may inherit or otherwise be associated withinformation management policies, preferences, information managementmetrics, or other properties or characteristics according to theirrelative position in a hierarchy of cells. Cells may also be delineatedand/or organized hierarchically according to function, geography,architectural considerations, or other factors useful or desirable inperforming information management operations. A first cell may representa geographic segment of an enterprise, such as a Chicago office, and asecond cell may represent a different geographic segment, such as a NewYork office. Other cells may represent departments within a particularoffice. Where delineated by function, a first cell may perform one ormore first types of information management operations (e.g., one or morefirst types of secondary or other copies), and a second cell may performone or more second types of information management operations (e.g., oneor more second types of secondary or other copies).

The storage manager 140 may also track information that permits it toselect, designate, or otherwise identify content indices, deduplicationdatabases, or similar databases or resources or data sets within itsinformation management cell (or another cell) to be searched in responseto certain queries. Such queries may be entered by the user viainteraction with the user interface 158. In general, the managementagent 154 allows multiple information management cells to communicatewith one another. For example, the information management system 100 insome cases may be one information management cell of a network ofmultiple cells adjacent to one another or otherwise logically related ina WAN or LAN. With this arrangement, the cells may be connected to oneanother through respective management agents 154.

For instance, the management agent 154 can provide the storage manager140 with the ability to communicate with other components within theinformation management system 100 (and/or other cells within a largerinformation management system) via network protocols and applicationprogramming interfaces (“APIs”) including, e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, REST,virtualization software APIs, cloud service provider APIs, and hostedservice provider APIs. Inter-cell communication and hierarchy isdescribed in greater detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,747,579 and 7,343,453,which are incorporated by reference herein.

Data Agents

As discussed, a variety of different types of applications 110 canreside on a given client computing device 102, including operatingsystems, database applications, e-mail applications, and virtualmachines, just to name a few. And, as part of the process of creatingand restoring secondary copies 116, the client computing devices 102 maybe tasked with processing and preparing the primary data 112 from thesevarious different applications 110. Moreover, the nature of theprocessing/preparation can differ across clients and application types,e.g., due to inherent structural and formatting differences betweenapplications 110.

The one or more data agent(s) 142 are therefore advantageouslyconfigured in some embodiments to assist in the performance ofinformation management operations based on the type of data that isbeing protected, at a client-specific and/or application-specific level.

The data agent 142 may be a software module or component that isgenerally responsible for managing, initiating, or otherwise assistingin the performance of information management operations. For instance,the data agent 142 may take part in performing data storage operationssuch as the copying, archiving, migrating, replicating of primary data112 stored in the primary storage device(s) 104. The data agent 142 mayreceive control information from the storage manager 140, such ascommands to transfer copies of data objects, metadata, and other payloaddata to the media agents 144.

In some embodiments, a data agent 142 may be distributed between theclient computing device 102 and storage manager 140 (and any otherintermediate components) or may be deployed from a remote location orits functions approximated by a remote process that performs some or allof the functions of data agent 142. In addition, a data agent 142 mayperform some functions provided by a media agent 144, or may performother functions such as encryption and deduplication.

As indicated, each data agent 142 may be specialized for a particularapplication 110, and the system can employ multiple application-specificdata agents 142, each of which may perform information managementoperations (e.g., perform backup, migration, and data recovery)associated with a different application 110. For instance, differentindividual data agents 142 may be designed to handle Microsoft Exchangedata, Lotus Notes data, Microsoft Windows file system data, MicrosoftActive Directory Objects data, SQL Server data, SharePoint data, Oracledatabase data, SAP database data, virtual machines and/or associateddata, and other types of data.

A file system data agent, for example, may handle data files and/orother file system information. If a client computing device 102 has twoor more types of data, one data agent 142 may be used for each data typeto copy, archive, migrate, and restore the client computing device 102data. For example, to backup, migrate, and restore all of the data on aMicrosoft Exchange server, the client computing device 102 may use oneMicrosoft Exchange Mailbox data agent 142 to backup the Exchangemailboxes, one Microsoft Exchange Database data agent 142 to backup theExchange databases, one Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data agent 142to backup the Exchange Public Folders, and one Microsoft Windows FileSystem data agent 142 to backup the file system of the client computingdevice 102. In such embodiments, these data agents 142 may be treated asfour separate data agents 142 even though they reside on the same clientcomputing device 102.

Other embodiments may employ one or more generic data agents 142 thatcan handle and process data from two or more different applications 110,or that can handle and process multiple data types, instead of or inaddition to using specialized data agents 142. For example, one genericdata agent 142 may be used to back up, migrate and restore MicrosoftExchange Mailbox data and Microsoft Exchange Database data while anothergeneric data agent may handle Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data andMicrosoft Windows File System data.

Each data agent 142 may be configured to access data and/or metadatastored in the primary storage device(s) 104 associated with the dataagent 142 and process the data as appropriate. For example, during asecondary copy operation, the data agent 142 may arrange or assemble thedata and metadata into one or more files having a certain format (e.g.,a particular backup or archive format) before transferring the file(s)to a media agent 144 or other component. The file(s) may include a listof files or other metadata. Each data agent 142 can also assist inrestoring data or metadata to primary storage devices 104 from asecondary copy 116. For instance, the data agent 142 may operate inconjunction with the storage manager 140 and one or more of the mediaagents 144 to restore data from secondary storage device(s) 108. MediaAgents

As indicated above with respect to FIG. 1A, off-loading certainresponsibilities from the client computing devices 102 to intermediatecomponents such as the media agent(s) 144 can provide a number ofbenefits including improved client computing device 102 operation,faster secondary copy operation performance, and enhanced scalability.As one specific example which will be discussed below in further detail,the media agent 144 can act as a local cache of copied data and/ormetadata that it has stored to the secondary storage device(s) 108,providing improved restore capabilities.

Generally speaking, a media agent 144 may be implemented as a softwaremodule that manages, coordinates, and facilitates the transmission ofdata, as directed by the storage manager 140, between a client computingdevice 102 and one or more secondary storage devices 108. Whereas thestorage manager 140 controls the operation of the information managementsystem 100, the media agent 144 generally provides a portal to secondarystorage devices 108. For instance, other components in the systeminteract with the media agents 144 to gain access to data stored on thesecondary storage devices 108, whether it be for the purposes ofreading, writing, modifying, or deleting data. Moreover, as will bedescribed further, media agents 144 can generate and store informationrelating to characteristics of the stored data and/or metadata, or cangenerate and store other types of information that generally providesinsight into the contents of the secondary storage devices 108.

Media agents 144 can comprise separate nodes in the informationmanagement system 100 (e.g., nodes that are separate from the clientcomputing devices 102, storage manager 140, and/or secondary storagedevices 108). In general, a node within the information managementsystem 100 can be a logically and/or physically separate component, andin some cases is a component that is individually addressable orotherwise identifiable. In addition, each media agent 144 may reside ona dedicated secondary storage computing device 106 in some cases, whilein other embodiments a plurality of media agents 144 reside on the samesecondary storage computing device 106.

A media agent 144 (and corresponding media agent database 152) may beconsidered to be “associated with” a particular secondary storage device108 if that media agent 144 is capable of one or more of: routing and/orstoring data to the particular secondary storage device 108,coordinating the routing and/or storing of data to the particularsecondary storage device 108, retrieving data from the particularsecondary storage device 108, coordinating the retrieval of data from aparticular secondary storage device 108, and modifying and/or deletingdata retrieved from the particular secondary storage device 108.

While media agent(s) 144 are generally associated with one or moresecondary storage devices 108, one or more media agents 144 in certainembodiments are physically separate from the secondary storage devices108. For instance, the media agents 144 may reside on secondary storagecomputing devices 106 having different housings or packages than thesecondary storage devices 108. In one example, a media agent 144 resideson a first server computer and is in communication with a secondarystorage device(s) 108 residing in a separate, rack-mounted RAID-basedsystem.

Where the information management system 100 includes multiple mediaagents 144 (FIG. 1D), a first media agent 144 may provide failoverfunctionality for a second, failed media agent 144. In addition, mediaagents 144 can be dynamically selected for storage operations to provideload balancing. Failover and load balancing are described in greaterdetail below.

In operation, a media agent 144 associated with a particular secondarystorage device 108 may instruct the secondary storage device 108 toperform an information management operation. For instance, a media agent144 may instruct a tape library to use a robotic arm or other retrievalmeans to load or eject a certain storage media, and to subsequentlyarchive, migrate, or retrieve data to or from that media, e.g., for thepurpose of restoring the data to a client computing device 102. Asanother example, a secondary storage device 108 may include an array ofhard disk drives or solid state drives organized in a RAIDconfiguration, and the media agent 144 may forward a logical unit number(LUN) and other appropriate information to the array, which uses thereceived information to execute the desired storage operation. The mediaagent 144 may communicate with a secondary storage device 108 via asuitable communications link, such as a SCSI or Fiber Channel link.

As shown, each media agent 144 may maintain an associated media agentdatabase 152. The media agent database 152 may be stored in a disk orother storage device (not shown) that is local to the secondary storagecomputing device 106 on which the media agent 144 resides. In othercases, the media agent database 152 is stored remotely from thesecondary storage computing device 106.

The media agent database 152 can include, among other things, an index153 including data generated during secondary copy operations and otherstorage or information management operations. The index 153 provides amedia agent 144 or other component with a fast and efficient mechanismfor locating secondary copies 116 or other data stored in the secondarystorage devices 108. In some cases, the index 153 does not form a partof and is instead separate from the media agent database 152.

A media agent index 153 or other data structure associated with theparticular media agent 144 may include information about the storeddata. For instance, for each secondary copy 116, the index 153 mayinclude metadata such as a list of the data objects (e.g.,files/subdirectories, database objects, mailbox objects, etc.), a pathto the secondary copy 116 on the corresponding secondary storage device108, location information indicating where the data objects are storedin the secondary storage device 108, when the data objects were createdor modified, etc. Thus, the index 153 includes metadata associated withthe secondary copies 116 that is readily available for use in storageoperations and other activities without having to be first retrievedfrom the secondary storage device 108. In yet further embodiments, someor all of the data in the index 153 may instead or additionally bestored along with the data in a secondary storage device 108, e.g., witha copy of the index 153. In some embodiments, the secondary storagedevices 108 can include sufficient information to perform a “bare metalrestore”, where the operating system of a failed client computing device102 or other restore target is automatically rebuilt as part of arestore operation.

Because the index 153 maintained in the media agent database 152 mayoperate as a cache, it can also be referred to as “an index cache.” Insuch cases, information stored in the index cache 153 typicallycomprises data that reflects certain particulars about storageoperations that have occurred relatively recently. After some triggeringevent, such as after a certain period of time elapses, or the indexcache 153 reaches a particular size, the index cache 153 may be copiedor migrated to a secondary storage device(s) 108. This information mayneed to be retrieved and uploaded back into the index cache 153 orotherwise restored to a media agent 144 to facilitate retrieval of datafrom the secondary storage device(s) 108. In some embodiments, thecached information may include format or containerization informationrelated to archives or other files stored on the storage device(s) 108.In this manner, the index cache 153 allows for accelerated restores.

In some alternative embodiments the media agent 144 generally acts as acoordinator or facilitator of storage operations between clientcomputing devices 102 and corresponding secondary storage devices 108,but does not actually write the data to the secondary storage device108. For instance, the storage manager 140 (or the media agent 144) mayinstruct a client computing device 102 and secondary storage device 108to communicate with one another directly. In such a case the clientcomputing device 102 transmits the data directly or via one or moreintermediary components to the secondary storage device 108 according tothe received instructions, and vice versa. In some such cases, the mediaagent 144 may still receive, process, and/or maintain metadata relatedto the storage operations. Moreover, in these embodiments, the payloaddata can flow through the media agent 144 for the purposes of populatingthe index cache 153 maintained in the media agent database 152, but notfor writing to the secondary storage device 108.

The media agent 144 and/or other components such as the storage manager140 may in some cases incorporate additional functionality, such as dataclassification, content indexing, deduplication, encryption,compression, and the like. Further details regarding these and otherfunctions are described below.

Distributed, Scalable Architecture

As described, certain functions of the information management system 100can be distributed amongst various physical and/or logical components inthe system. For instance, one or more of the storage manager 140, dataagents 142, and media agents 144 may reside on computing devices thatare physically separate from one another. This architecture can providea number of benefits.

For instance, hardware and software design choices for each distributedcomponent can be targeted to suit its particular function. The secondarycomputing devices 106 on which the media agents 144 reside can betailored for interaction with associated secondary storage devices 108and provide fast index cache operation, among other specific tasks.Similarly, the client computing device(s) 102 can be selected toeffectively service the applications 110 residing thereon, in order toefficiently produce and store primary data 112.

Moreover, in some cases, one or more of the individual components in theinformation management system 100 can be distributed to multiple,separate computing devices. As one example, for large file systems wherethe amount of data stored in the database 146 is relatively large, thedatabase 146 may be migrated to or otherwise reside on a specializeddatabase server (e.g., an SQL server) separate from a server thatimplements the other functions of the storage manager 140. Thisconfiguration can provide added protection because the database 146 canbe protected with standard database utilities (e.g., SQL log shipping ordatabase replication) independent from other functions of the storagemanager 140. The database 146 can be efficiently replicated to a remotesite for use in the event of a disaster or other data loss incident atthe primary site. Or the database 146 can be replicated to anothercomputing device within the same site, such as to a higher performancemachine in the event that a storage manager host device can no longerservice the needs of a growing information management system 100.

The distributed architecture also provides both scalability andefficient component utilization. FIG. 1D shows an embodiment of theinformation management system 100 including a plurality of clientcomputing devices 102 and associated data agents 142 as well as aplurality of secondary storage computing devices 106 and associatedmedia agents 144.

Additional components can be added or subtracted based on the evolvingneeds of the information management system 100. For instance, dependingon where bottlenecks are identified, administrators can add additionalclient computing devices 102, secondary storage computing devices 106(and corresponding media agents 144), and/or secondary storage devices108. Moreover, where multiple fungible components are available, loadbalancing can be implemented to dynamically address identifiedbottlenecks. As an example, the storage manager 140 may dynamicallyselect which media agents 144 and/or secondary storage devices 108 touse for storage operations based on a processing load analysis of themedia agents 144 and/or secondary storage devices 108, respectively.

Moreover, each client computing device 102 in some embodiments cancommunicate with, among other components, any of the media agents 144,e.g., as directed by the storage manager 140. And each media agent 144may be able to communicate with, among other components, any of thesecondary storage devices 108, e.g., as directed by the storage manager140. Thus, operations can be routed to the secondary storage devices 108in a dynamic and highly flexible manner, to provide load balancing,failover, and the like. Further examples of scalable systems capable ofdynamic storage operations, and of systems capable of performing loadbalancing and fail over are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, whichis incorporated by reference herein.

In alternative configurations, certain components are not distributedand may instead reside and execute on the same computing device. Forexample, in some embodiments one or more data agents 142 and the storagemanager 140 reside on the same client computing device 102. In anotherembodiment, one or more data agents 142 and one or more media agents 144reside on a single computing device.

Exemplary Types of Information Management Operations

In order to protect and leverage stored data, the information managementsystem 100 can be configured to perform a variety of informationmanagement operations. As will be described, these operations cangenerally include secondary copy and other data movement operations,processing and data manipulation operations, analysis, reporting, andmanagement operations. The operations described herein may be performedon any type of computing platform, e.g., between two computers connectedvia a LAN, to a mobile client telecommunications device connected to aserver via a WLAN, to any manner of client device coupled to a cloudstorage target.

Data Movement Operations

Data movement operations according to certain embodiments are generallyoperations that involve the copying or migration of data (e.g., payloaddata) between different locations in the information management system100 in an original/native and/or one or more different formats. Forexample, data movement operations can include operations in which storeddata is copied, migrated, or otherwise transferred from one or morefirst storage devices to one or more second storage devices, such asfrom primary storage device(s) 104 to secondary storage device(s) 108,from secondary storage device(s) 108 to different secondary storagedevice(s) 108, from secondary storage devices 108 to primary storagedevices 104, or from primary storage device(s) 104 to different primarystorage device(s) 104.

Data movement operations can include by way of example, backupoperations, archive operations, information lifecycle managementoperations such as hierarchical storage management operations,replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication operations),snapshot operations, deduplication or single-instancing operations,auxiliary copy operations, and the like. As will be discussed, some ofthese operations involve the copying, migration or other movement ofdata, without actually creating multiple, distinct copies. Nonetheless,some or all of these operations are referred to as “copy” operations forsimplicity.

Backup Operations

A backup operation creates a copy of a version of data (e.g., one ormore files or other data units) in primary data 112 at a particularpoint in time. Each subsequent backup copy may be maintainedindependently of the first. Further, a backup copy in some embodimentsis generally stored in a form that is different than the native format,e.g., a backup format. This can be in contrast to the version in primarydata 112 from which the backup copy is derived, and which may instead bestored in a native format of the source application(s) 110. In variouscases, backup copies can be stored in a format in which the data iscompressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified from theoriginal application format. For example, a backup copy may be stored ina backup format that facilitates compression and/or efficient long-termstorage.

Backup copies can have relatively long retention periods as compared toprimary data 112, and may be stored on media with slower retrieval timesthan primary data 112 and certain other types of secondary copies 116.On the other hand, backups may have relatively shorter retention periodsthan some other types of secondary copies 116, such as archive copies(described below). Backups may sometimes be stored at on offsitelocation.

Backup operations can include full, synthetic or incremental backups. Afull backup in some embodiments is generally a complete image of thedata to be protected. However, because full backup copies can consume arelatively large amount of storage, it can be useful to use a fullbackup copy as a baseline and only store changes relative to the fullbackup copy for subsequent backup copies.

For instance, a differential backup operation (or cumulative incrementalbackup operation) tracks and stores changes that have occurred since thelast full backup. Differential backups can grow quickly in size, but canprovide relatively efficient restore times because a restore can becompleted in some cases using only the full backup copy and the latestdifferential copy.

An incremental backup operation generally tracks and stores changessince the most recent backup copy of any type, which can greatly reducestorage utilization. In some cases, however, restore times can berelatively long in comparison to full or differential backups becausecompleting a restore operation may involve accessing a full backup inaddition to multiple incremental backups.

Any of the above types of backup operations can be at the volume-level,file-level, or block-level. Volume level backup operations generallyinvolve the copying of a data volume (e.g., a logical disk or partition)as a whole. In a file-level backup, the information management system100 may generally track changes to individual files at the file-level,and includes copies of files in the backup copy. In the case of ablock-level backup, files are broken into constituent blocks, andchanges are tracked at the block-level. Upon restore, the informationmanagement system 100 reassembles the blocks into files in a transparentfashion.

Far less data may actually be transferred and copied to the secondarystorage devices 108 during a file-level copy than a volume-level copy.Likewise, a block-level copy may involve the transfer of less data thana file-level copy, resulting in faster execution times. However,restoring a relatively higher-granularity copy can result in longerrestore times. For instance, when restoring a block-level copy, theprocess of locating constituent blocks can sometimes result in longerrestore times as compared to file-level backups. Similar to backupoperations, the other types of secondary copy operations describedherein can also be implemented at either the volume-level, file-level,or block-level.

Archive Operations

Because backup operations generally involve maintaining a version of thecopied data in primary data 112 and also maintaining backup copies insecondary storage device(s) 108, they can consume significant storagecapacity. To help reduce storage consumption, an archive operationaccording to certain embodiments creates a secondary copy 116 by bothcopying and removing source data. Or, seen another way, archiveoperations can involve moving some or all of the source data to thearchive destination. Thus, data satisfying criteria for removal (e.g.,data of a threshold age or size) from the source copy may be removedfrom source storage. Archive copies are sometimes stored in an archiveformat or other non-native application format. The source data may beprimary data 112 or a secondary copy 116, depending on the situation. Aswith backup copies, archive copies can be stored in a format in whichthe data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwisemodified from the original application format.

In addition, archive copies may be retained for relatively long periodsof time (e.g., years) and, in some cases, are never deleted. Archivecopies are generally retained for longer periods of time than backupcopies, for example. In certain embodiments, archive copies may be madeand kept for extended periods in order to meet compliance regulations.

Moreover, when primary data 112 is archived, in some cases the archivedprimary data 112 or a portion thereof is deleted when creating thearchive copy. Thus, archiving can serve the purpose of freeing up spacein the primary storage device(s) 104. Similarly, when a secondary copy116 is archived, the secondary copy 116 may be deleted, and an archivecopy can therefore serve the purpose of freeing up space in secondarystorage device(s) 108. In contrast, source copies often remain intactwhen creating backup copies. Examples of compatible data archivingoperations are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298, which isincorporated by reference herein.

Snapshot Operations

Snapshot operations can provide a relatively lightweight, efficientmechanism for protecting data. From an end-user viewpoint, a snapshotmay be thought of as an “instant” image of the primary data 112 at agiven point in time, and may include state and/or status informationrelative to an application that creates/manages the data. In oneembodiment, a snapshot may generally capture the directory structure ofan object in primary data 112 such as a file or volume or other data setat a particular moment in time and may also preserve file attributes andcontents. A snapshot in some cases is created relatively quickly, e.g.,substantially instantly, using a minimum amount of file space, but maystill function as a conventional file system backup.

A “hardware snapshot” (or “hardware-based snapshot”) operation can be asnapshot operation where a target storage device (e.g., a primarystorage device 104 or a secondary storage device 108) performs thesnapshot operation in a self-contained fashion, substantiallyindependently, using hardware, firmware and/or software residing on thestorage device itself. For instance, the storage device may be capableof performing snapshot operations upon request, generally withoutintervention or oversight from any of the other components in theinformation management system 100. In this manner, In this manner,hardware snapshots can off-load other components of informationmanagement system 100 from processing involved in snapshot creation andmanagement.

A “software snapshot” (or “software-based snapshot”) operation, on theother hand, can be a snapshot operation in which one or more othercomponents in information management system 100 (e.g., client computingdevices 102, data agents 142, etc.) implement a software layer thatmanages the snapshot operation via interaction with the target storagedevice. For instance, the component implementing the snapshot managementsoftware layer may derive a set of pointers and/or data that representsthe snapshot. The snapshot management software layer may then transmitthe same to the target storage device, along with appropriateinstructions for writing the snapshot.

Some types of snapshots do not actually create another physical copy ofall the data as it existed at the particular point in time, but maysimply create pointers that are able to map files and directories tospecific memory locations (e.g., to specific disk blocks) where the dataresides, as it existed at the particular point in time. For example, asnapshot copy may include a set of pointers derived from the file systemor an application. In some other cases, the snapshot may be created atthe block-level, such as where creation of the snapshot occurs withoutawareness of the file system. Each pointer points to a respective storeddata block, so that collectively, the set of pointers reflect thestorage location and state of the data object (e.g., file(s) orvolume(s) or data set(s)) at a particular point in time when thesnapshot copy was created.

Once a snapshot has been taken, subsequent changes to the file systemtypically do not overwrite the blocks in use at the time of thesnapshot. Therefore, the initial snapshot may use only a small amount ofdisk space needed to record a mapping or other data structurerepresenting or otherwise tracking the blocks that correspond to thecurrent state of the file system. Additional disk space is usuallyrequired only when files and directories are actually later modified.Furthermore, when files are modified, typically only the pointers whichmap to blocks are copied, not the blocks themselves. In someembodiments, for example in the case of “copy-on-write” snapshots, whena block changes in primary storage, the block is copied to secondarystorage or cached in primary storage before the block is overwritten inprimary storage, and the pointer to that block changed to reflect thenew location of that block. The snapshot mapping of file system data mayalso be updated to reflect the changed block(s) at that particular pointin time. In some other cases, a snapshot includes a full physical copyof all or substantially all of the data represented by the snapshot.Further examples of snapshot operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,529,782, which is incorporated by reference herein.

A snapshot copy in many cases can be made quickly and withoutsignificantly impacting primary computing resources because largeamounts of data need not be copied or moved. In some embodiments, asnapshot may exist as a virtual file system, parallel to the actual filesystem. Users in some cases gain read-only access to the record of filesand directories of the snapshot. By electing to restore primary data 112from a snapshot taken at a given point in time, users may also returnthe current file system to the state of the file system that existedwhen the snapshot was taken.

Replication Operations

Another type of secondary copy operation is a replication operation.Some types of secondary copies 116 are used to periodically captureimages of primary data 112 at particular points in time (e.g., backups,archives, and snapshots). However, it can also be useful for recoverypurposes to protect primary data 112 in a more continuous fashion, byreplicating the primary data 112 substantially as changes occur. In somecases a replication copy can be a mirror copy, for instance, wherechanges made to primary data 112 are mirrored or substantiallyimmediately copied to another location (e.g., to secondary storagedevice(s) 108). By copying each write operation to the replication copy,two storage systems are kept synchronized or substantially synchronizedso that they are virtually identical at approximately the same time.Where entire disk volumes are mirrored, however, mirroring can requiresignificant amount of storage space and utilizes a large amount ofprocessing resources.

According to some embodiments storage operations are performed onreplicated data that represents a recoverable state, or “known goodstate” of a particular application running on the source system. Forinstance, in certain embodiments, known good replication copies may beviewed as copies of primary data 112. This feature allows the system todirectly access, copy, restore, backup or otherwise manipulate thereplication copies as if the data was the “live”, primary data 112. Thiscan reduce access time, storage utilization, and impact on sourceapplications 110, among other benefits.

Based on known good state information, the information management system100 can replicate sections of application data that represent arecoverable state rather than rote copying of blocks of data. Examplesof compatible replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication)are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, which is incorporated byreference herein.

Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations

Another type of data movement operation is deduplication orsingle-instance storage, which is useful to reduce the amount of datawithin the system. For instance, some or all of the above-describedsecondary storage operations can involve deduplication in some fashion.New data is read, broken down into portions (e.g., sub-file levelblocks, files, etc.) of a selected granularity, compared with blocksthat are already stored, and only the new blocks are stored. Blocks thatalready exist are represented as pointers to the already stored data.

In order to streamline the comparison process, the informationmanagement system 100 may calculate and/or store signatures (e.g.,hashes or cryptographically unique IDs) corresponding to the individualdata blocks in a database and compare the signatures instead ofcomparing entire data blocks. In some cases, only a single instance ofeach element is stored, and deduplication operations may therefore bereferred to interchangeably as “single-instancing” operations. Dependingon the implementation, however, deduplication or single-instancingoperations can store more than one instance of certain data blocks, butnonetheless significantly reduce data redundancy.

Depending on the embodiment, deduplication blocks can be of fixed orvariable length. Using variable length blocks can provide enhanceddeduplication by responding to changes in the data stream, but caninvolve complex processing. In some cases, the information managementsystem 100 utilizes a technique for dynamically aligning deduplicationblocks (e.g., fixed-length blocks) based on changing content in the datastream, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652, which is incorporatedby reference herein.

The information management system 100 can perform deduplication in avariety of manners at a variety of locations in the informationmanagement system 100. For instance, in some embodiments, theinformation management system 100 implements “target-side” deduplicationby deduplicating data (e.g., secondary copies 116) stored in thesecondary storage devices 108. In some such cases, the media agents 144are generally configured to manage the deduplication process. Forinstance, one or more of the media agents 144 maintain a correspondingdeduplication database that stores deduplication information (e.g.,datablock signatures). Examples of such a configuration are provided inU.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, which is incorporated by referenceherein. Instead of or in combination with “target-side” deduplication,deduplication can also be performed on the “source-side” (or“client-side”), e.g., to reduce the amount of traffic between the mediaagents 144 and the client computing device(s) 102 and/or reduceredundant data stored in the primary storage devices 104. According tovarious implementations, one or more of the storage devices of thetarget-side, source-side, or client-side of an operation can becloud-based storage devices. Thus, the target-side, source-side, and/orclient-side deduplication can be cloud-based deduplication. Inparticular, as discussed previously, the storage manager 140 maycommunicate with other components within the information managementsystem 100 via network protocols and cloud service provider APIs tofacilitate cloud-based deduplication/single instancing. Examples of suchdeduplication techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. Pub. No.2012/0150818, which is incorporated by reference herein. Some othercompatible deduplication/single instancing techniques are described inU.S. Pat. Pub. Nos. 2006/0224846 and 2009/0319534, which areincorporated by reference herein.

Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage ManagementOperations

In some embodiments, files and other data over their lifetime move frommore expensive, quick access storage to less expensive, slower accessstorage. Operations associated with moving data through various tiers ofstorage are sometimes referred to as information lifecycle management(ILM) operations.

One type of ILM operation is a hierarchical storage management (HSM)operation. A HSM operation is generally an operation for automaticallymoving data between classes of storage devices, such as betweenhigh-cost and low-cost storage devices. For instance, an HSM operationmay involve movement of data from primary storage devices 104 tosecondary storage devices 108, or between tiers of secondary storagedevices 108. With each tier, the storage devices may be progressivelyrelatively cheaper, have relatively slower access/restore times, etc.For example, movement of data between tiers may occur as data becomesless important over time.

In some embodiments, an HSM operation is similar to an archive operationin that creating an HSM copy may (though not always) involve deletingsome of the source data, e.g., according to one or more criteria relatedto the source data. For example, an HSM copy may include data fromprimary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 that is larger than a givensize threshold or older than a given age threshold and that is stored ina backup format.

Often, and unlike some types of archive copies, HSM data that is removedor aged from the source copy is replaced by a logical reference pointeror stub. The reference pointer or stub can be stored in the primarystorage device 104 (or other source storage device, such as a secondarystorage device 108) to replace the deleted data in primary data 112 (orother source copy) and to point to or otherwise indicate the newlocation in a secondary storage device 108.

According to one example, files are generally moved between higher andlower cost storage depending on how often the files are accessed. When auser requests access to the HSM data that has been removed or migrated,the information management system 100 uses the stub to locate the dataand often make recovery of the data appear transparent, even though theHSM data may be stored at a location different from the remaining sourcedata. In this manner, the data appears to the user (e.g., in file systembrowsing windows and the like) as if it still resides in the sourcelocation (e.g., in a primary storage device 104). The stub may alsoinclude some metadata associated with the corresponding data, so that afile system and/or application can provide some information about thedata object and/or a limited-functionality version (e.g., a preview) ofthe data object.

An HSM copy may be stored in a format other than the native applicationformat (e.g., where the data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated,and/or otherwise modified from the original application format). In somecases, copies which involve the removal of data from source storage andthe maintenance of stub or other logical reference information on sourcestorage may be referred to generally as “on-line archive copies”. On theother hand, copies which involve the removal of data from source storagewithout the maintenance of stub or other logical reference informationon source storage may be referred to as “off-line archive copies”.Examples of HSM and ILM techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Auxiliary Copy and Disaster Recovery Operations

An auxiliary copy is generally a copy operation in which a copy iscreated of an existing secondary copy 116. For instance, an initialsecondary copy 116 may be generated using or otherwise be derived fromprimary data 112 (or other data residing in the secondary storagesubsystem 118), whereas an auxiliary copy is generated from the initialsecondary copy 116. Auxiliary copies can be used to create additionalstandby copies of data and may reside on different secondary storagedevices 108 than the initial secondary copies 116. Thus, auxiliarycopies can be used for recovery purposes if initial secondary copies 116become unavailable. Exemplary compatible auxiliary copy techniques aredescribed in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, which isincorporated by reference herein.

The information management system 100 may also perform disaster recoveryoperations that make or retain disaster recovery copies, often assecondary, high-availability disk copies. The information managementsystem 100 may create secondary disk copies and store the copies atdisaster recovery locations using auxiliary copy or replicationoperations, such as continuous data replication technologies. Dependingon the particular data protection goals, disaster recovery locations canbe remote from the client computing devices 102 and primary storagedevices 104, remote from some or all of the secondary storage devices108, or both.

Data Analysis, Reporting, and Management Operations

Data analysis, reporting, and management operations can be differentthan data movement operations in that they do not necessarily involvethe copying, migration or other transfer of data (e.g., primary data 112or secondary copies 116) between different locations in the system. Forinstance, data analysis operations may involve processing (e.g., offlineprocessing) or modification of already stored primary data 112 and/orsecondary copies 116. However, in some embodiments data analysisoperations are performed in conjunction with data movement operations.Some data analysis operations include content indexing operations andclassification operations which can be useful in leveraging the dataunder management to provide enhanced search and other features. Otherdata analysis operations such as compression and encryption can providedata reduction and security benefits, respectively.

Classification Operations/Content Indexing

In some embodiments, the information management system 100 analyzes andindexes characteristics, content, and metadata associated with the datastored within the primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116,providing enhanced search and management capabilities for data discoveryand other purposes. The content indexing can be used to identify filesor other data objects having pre-defined content (e.g., user-definedkeywords or phrases, other keywords/phrases that are not defined by auser, etc.), and/or metadata (e.g., email metadata such as “to”, “from”,“cc”, “bcc”, attachment name, received time, etc.).

The information management system 100 generally organizes and cataloguesthe results in a content index, which may be stored within the mediaagent database 152, for example. The content index can also include thestorage locations of (or pointer references to) the indexed data in theprimary data 112 or secondary copies 116, as appropriate. The resultsmay also be stored, in the form of a content index database orotherwise, elsewhere in the information management system 100 (e.g., inthe primary storage devices 104, or in the secondary storage device108). Such index data provides the storage manager 140 or anothercomponent with an efficient mechanism for locating primary data 112and/or secondary copies 116 of data objects that match particularcriteria.

For instance, search criteria can be specified by a user through userinterface 158 of the storage manager 140. In some cases, the informationmanagement system 100 analyzes data and/or metadata in secondary copies116 to create an “off-line” content index, without significantlyimpacting the performance of the client computing devices 102. Dependingon the embodiment, the system can also implement “on-line” contentindexing, e.g., of primary data 112. Examples of compatible contentindexing techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, which isincorporated by reference herein.

In order to further leverage the data stored in the informationmanagement system 100 to perform these and other tasks, one or morecomponents can be configured to scan data and/or associated metadata forclassification purposes to populate a database (or other data structure)of information (which can be referred to as a “data classificationdatabase” or a “metabase”). Depending on the embodiment, the dataclassification database(s) can be organized in a variety of differentways, including centralization, logical sub-divisions, and/or physicalsub-divisions. For instance, one or more centralized data classificationdatabases may be associated with different subsystems or tiers withinthe information management system 100. As an example, there may be afirst centralized metabase associated with the primary storage subsystem117 and a second centralized metabase associated with the secondarystorage subsystem 118. In other cases, there may be one or moremetabases associated with individual components. For instance, there maybe a dedicated metabase associated with some or all of the clientcomputing devices 102 and/or media agents 144. In some embodiments, adata classification database may reside as one or more data structureswithin management database 146, or may be otherwise associated withstorage manager 140.

In some cases, the metabase(s) may be included in separate database(s)and/or on separate storage device(s) from primary data 112 and/orsecondary copies 116, such that operations related to the metabase donot significantly impact performance on other components in theinformation management system 100. In other cases, the metabase(s) maybe stored along with primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. Filesor other data objects can be associated with identifiers (e.g., tagentries, etc.) in the media agent 144 (or other indices) to facilitatesearches of stored data objects. Among a number of other benefits, themetabase can also allow efficient, automatic identification of files orother data objects to associate with secondary copy or other informationmanagement operations (e.g., in lieu of scanning an entire file system).Examples of compatible metabases and data classification operations areprovided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,229,954 and 7,747,579, which areincorporated by reference herein.

Encryption Operations

The information management system 100 in some cases is configured toprocess data (e.g., files or other data objects, secondary copies 116,etc.), according to an appropriate encryption algorithm (e.g., Blowfish,Advanced Encryption Standard [AES], Triple Data Encryption Standard[3-DES], etc.) to limit access and provide data security in theinformation management system 100.

The information management system 100 in some cases encrypts the data atthe client level, such that the client computing devices 102 (e.g., thedata agents 142) encrypt the data prior to forwarding the data to othercomponents, e.g., before sending the data to media agents 144 during asecondary copy operation. In such cases, the client computing device 102may maintain or have access to an encryption key or passphrase fordecrypting the data upon restore. Encryption can also occur whencreating copies of secondary copies, e.g., when creating auxiliarycopies or archive copies. In yet further embodiments, the secondarystorage devices 108 can implement built-in, high performance hardwareencryption.

Management and Reporting Operations

Certain embodiments leverage the integrated, ubiquitous nature of theinformation management system 100 to provide useful system-widemanagement and reporting functions. Examples of some compatiblemanagement and reporting techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Operations management can generally include monitoring and managing thehealth and performance of information management system 100 by, withoutlimitation, performing error tracking, generating granularstorage/performance metrics (e.g., job success/failure information,deduplication efficiency, etc.), generating storage modeling and costinginformation, and the like.

As an example, a storage manager 140 or other component in theinformation management system 100 may analyze traffic patterns andsuggest or automatically route data via a particular route to e.g.,certain facilitate storage and minimize congestion. In some embodiments,the system can generate predictions relating to storage operations orstorage operation information. Such predictions described may be basedon a trending analysis that may be used to predict various networkoperations or use of network resources such as network traffic levels,storage media use, use of bandwidth of communication links, use of mediaagent components, etc. Further examples of traffic analysis, trendanalysis, prediction generation, and the like are described in U.S. Pat.No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.

In some configurations, a master storage manager 140 may track thestatus of a set of associated storage operation cells in a hierarchy ofinformation management cells, such as the status of jobs, systemcomponents, system resources, and other items, by communicating withstorage managers 140 (or other components) in the respective storageoperation cells. Moreover, the master storage manager 140 may track thestatus of its associated storage operation cells and associatedinformation management operations by receiving periodic status updatesfrom the storage managers 140 (or other components) in the respectivecells regarding jobs, system components, system resources, and otheritems. In some embodiments, a master storage manager 140 may storestatus information and other information regarding its associatedstorage operation cells and other system information in its index 150(or other location).

The master storage manager 140 or other component in the system may alsodetermine whether certain storage-related criteria or other criteria aresatisfied, and perform an action or trigger event (e.g., data migration)in response to the criteria being satisfied, such as where a storagethreshold is met for a particular volume, or where inadequate protectionexists for certain data. For instance, in some embodiments, the systemuses data from one or more storage operation cells to advise users ofrisks or indicates actions that can be used to mitigate or otherwiseminimize these risks, and in some embodiments, dynamically takes actionto mitigate or minimize these risks. For example, an informationmanagement policy may specify certain requirements (e.g., that a storagedevice should maintain a certain amount of free space, that secondarycopies should occur at a particular interval, that data should be agedand migrated to other storage after a particular period, that data on asecondary volume should always have a certain level of availability andbe able to be restored within a given time period, that data on asecondary volume may be mirrored or otherwise migrated to a specifiednumber of other volumes, etc.). If a risk condition or other criteria istriggered, the system can notify the user of these conditions and maysuggest (or automatically implement) an action to mitigate or otherwiseaddress the condition or minimize risk. For example, the system mayindicate that data from a primary copy 112 should be migrated to asecondary storage device 108 to free space on the primary storage device104. Examples of the use of risk factors and other triggering criteriaare described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated byreference herein.

In some embodiments, the system 100 may also determine whether a metricor other indication satisfies a particular storage criteria and, if so,perform an action. For example, as previously described, a storagepolicy or other definition might indicate that a storage manager 140should initiate a particular action if a storage metric or otherindication drops below or otherwise fails to satisfy specified criteriasuch as a threshold of data protection. Examples of such metrics aredescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by referenceherein.

In some embodiments, risk factors may be quantified into certainmeasurable service or risk levels for ease of comprehension. Forexample, certain applications and associated data may be considered tobe more important by an enterprise than other data and services.Financial compliance data, for example, may be of greater importancethan marketing materials, etc. Network administrators may assignpriorities or “weights” to certain data or applications, correspondingto its importance (priority value). The level of compliance with thestorage operations specified for these applications may also be assigneda certain value. Thus, the health, impact and overall importance of aservice on an enterprise may be determined, for example, by measuringthe compliance value and calculating the product of the priority valueand the compliance value to determine the “service level” and comparingit to certain operational thresholds to determine if the operation isbeing performed within a specified data protection service level.Further examples of the service level determination are provided in U.S.Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.

The system 100 may additionally calculate data costing and dataavailability associated with information management operation cellsaccording to an embodiment of the invention. For instance, data receivedfrom the cell may be used in conjunction with hardware-relatedinformation and other information about network elements to generateindications of costs associated with storage of particular data in thesystem or the availability of particular data in the system. In general,components in the system are identified and associated information isobtained (dynamically or manually). Characteristics or metricsassociated with the network elements may be identified and associatedwith that component element for further use generating an indication ofstorage cost or data availability. Exemplary information generated couldinclude how fast a particular department is using up available storagespace, how long data would take to recover over a particular networkpathway from a particular secondary storage device, costs over time,etc. Moreover, in some embodiments, such information may be used todetermine or predict the overall cost associated with the storage ofcertain information. The cost associated with hosting a certainapplication may be based, at least in part, on the type of media onwhich the data resides. Storage devices may be assigned to a particularcost category which is indicative of the cost of storing information onthat device. Further examples of costing techniques are described inU.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Any of the above types of information (e.g., information related totrending, predictions, job, cell or component status, risk, servicelevel, costing, etc.) can generally be provided to users via the userinterface 158 in a single, integrated view or console. The console maysupport a reporting capability that allows for the generation of avariety of reports, which may be tailored to a particular aspect ofinformation management. Report types may include: scheduling, eventmanagement, media management and data aging. Available reports may alsoinclude backup history, data aging history, auxiliary copy history, jobhistory, library and drive, media in library, restore history, andstorage policy. Such reports may be specified and created at a certainpoint in time as a network analysis, forecasting, or provisioning tool.Integrated reports may also be generated that illustrate storage andperformance metrics, risks and storage costing information. Moreover,users may create their own reports based on specific needs.

The integrated user interface 158 can include an option to show a“virtual view” of the system that graphically depicts the variouscomponents in the system using appropriate icons. As one example, theuser interface 158 may provide a graphical depiction of one or moreprimary storage devices 104, the secondary storage devices 108, dataagents 142 and/or media agents 144, and their relationship to oneanother in the information management system 100. The operationsmanagement functionality can facilitate planning and decision-making.For example, in some embodiments, a user may view the status of some orall jobs as well as the status of each component of the informationmanagement system 100. Users may then plan and make decisions based onthis data. For instance, a user may view high-level informationregarding storage operations for the information management system 100,such as job status, component status, resource status (e.g., networkpathways, etc.), and other information. The user may also drill down oruse other means to obtain more detailed information regarding aparticular component, job, or the like.

Further examples of some reporting techniques and associated interfacesproviding an integrated view of an information management system areprovided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by referenceherein.

The information management system 100 can also be configured to performsystem-wide e-discovery operations in some embodiments. In general,e-discovery operations provide a unified collection and searchcapability for data in the system, such as data stored in the secondarystorage devices 108 (e.g., backups, archives, or other secondary copies116). For example, the information management system 100 may constructand maintain a virtual repository for data stored in the informationmanagement system 100 that is integrated across source applications 110,different storage device types, etc. According to some embodiments,e-discovery utilizes other techniques described herein, such as dataclassification and/or content indexing.

Information Management Policies

As indicated previously, an information management policy 148 caninclude a data structure or other information source that specifies aset of parameters (e.g., criteria and rules) associated with secondarycopy or other information management operations.

One type of information management policy 148 is a storage policy.According to certain embodiments, a storage policy generally comprises adata structure or other information source that defines (or includesinformation sufficient to determine) a set of preferences or othercriteria for performing information management operations. Storagepolicies can include one or more of the following items: (1) what datawill be associated with the storage policy; (2) a destination to whichthe data will be stored; (3) datapath information specifying how thedata will be communicated to the destination; (4) the type of storageoperation to be performed; and (5) retention information specifying howlong the data will be retained at the destination.

As an illustrative example, data associated with a storage policy can belogically organized into groups. In some cases, these logical groupingscan be referred to as “sub-clients”. A sub-client may represent staticor dynamic associations of portions of a data volume. Sub-clients mayrepresent mutually exclusive portions. Thus, in certain embodiments, aportion of data may be given a label and the association is stored as astatic entity in an index, database or other storage location.

Sub-clients may also be used as an effective administrative scheme oforganizing data according to data type, department within theenterprise, storage preferences, or the like. Depending on theconfiguration, sub-clients can correspond to files, folders, virtualmachines, databases, etc. In one exemplary scenario, an administratormay find it preferable to separate e-mail data from financial data usingtwo different sub-clients.

A storage policy can define where data is stored by specifying a targetor destination storage device (or group of storage devices). Forinstance, where the secondary storage device 108 includes a group ofdisk libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular disk libraryfor storing the sub-clients associated with the policy. As anotherexample, where the secondary storage devices 108 include one or moretape libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular tape libraryfor storing the sub-clients associated with the storage policy, and mayalso specify a drive pool and a tape pool defining a group of tapedrives and a group of tapes, respectively, for use in storing thesub-client data. While information in the storage policy can bestatically assigned in some cases, some or all of the information in thestorage policy can also be dynamically determined based on criteria,which can be set forth in the storage policy. For instance, based onsuch criteria, a particular destination storage device(s) (or otherparameter of the storage policy) may be determined based oncharacteristics associated with the data involved in a particularstorage operation, device availability (e.g., availability of asecondary storage device 108 or a media agent 144), network status andconditions (e.g., identified bottlenecks), user credentials, and thelike).

Datapath information can also be included in the storage policy. Forinstance, the storage policy may specify network pathways and componentsto utilize when moving the data to the destination storage device(s). Insome embodiments, the storage policy specifies one or more media agents144 for conveying data (e.g., one or more sub-clients) associated withthe storage policy between the source (e.g., one or more host clientcomputing devices 102) and destination (e.g., a particular targetsecondary storage device 108).

A storage policy can also specify the type(s) of operations associatedwith the storage policy, such as a backup, archive, snapshot, auxiliarycopy, or the like. Retention information can specify how long the datawill be kept, depending on organizational needs (e.g., a number of days,months, years, etc.)

The information management policies 148 may also include one or morescheduling policies specifying when and how often to perform operations.Scheduling information may specify with what frequency (e.g., hourly,weekly, daily, event-based, etc.) or under what triggering conditionssecondary copy or other information management operations will takeplace. Scheduling policies in some cases are associated with particularcomponents, such as particular logical groupings of data associated witha storage policy (e.g., a sub-client), client computing device 102, andthe like. In one configuration, a separate scheduling policy ismaintained for particular logical groupings of data on a clientcomputing device 102. The scheduling policy specifies that those logicalgroupings are to be moved to secondary storage devices 108 every houraccording to storage policies associated with the respectivesub-clients.

When adding a new client computing device 102, administrators canmanually configure information management policies 148 and/or othersettings, e.g., via the user interface 158. However, this can be aninvolved process resulting in delays, and it may be desirable to begindata protecting operations quickly.

Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100automatically applies a default configuration to client computing device102. As one example, when one or more data agent(s) 142 are installed onone or more client computing devices 102, the installation script mayregister the client computing device 102 with the storage manager 140,which in turn applies the default configuration to the new clientcomputing device 102. In this manner, data protection operations canbegin substantially immediately. The default configuration can include adefault storage policy, for example, and can specify any appropriateinformation sufficient to begin data protection operations. This caninclude a type of data protection operation, scheduling information, atarget secondary storage device 108, data path information (e.g., aparticular media agent 144), and the like.

Other types of information management policies 148 are possible. Forinstance, the information management policies 148 can also include oneor more audit or security policies. An audit policy is a set ofpreferences, rules and/or criteria that protect sensitive data in theinformation management system 100. For example, an audit policy maydefine “sensitive objects” as files or objects that contain particularkeywords (e.g., “confidential,” or “privileged”) and/or are associatedwith particular keywords (e.g., in metadata) or particular flags (e.g.,in metadata identifying a document or email as personal, confidential,etc.).

An audit policy may further specify rules for handling sensitiveobjects. As an example, an audit policy may require that a reviewerapprove the transfer of any sensitive objects to a cloud storage site,and that if approval is denied for a particular sensitive object, thesensitive object should be transferred to a local primary storage device104 instead. To facilitate this approval, the audit policy may furtherspecify how a secondary storage computing device 106 or other systemcomponent should notify a reviewer that a sensitive object is slated fortransfer.

In some implementations, the information management policies 148 mayinclude one or more provisioning policies. A provisioning policy caninclude a set of preferences, priorities, rules, and/or criteria thatspecify how client computing devices 102 (or groups thereof) may utilizesystem resources, such as available storage on cloud storage and/ornetwork bandwidth. A provisioning policy specifies, for example, dataquotas for particular client computing devices 102 (e.g., a number ofgigabytes that can be stored monthly, quarterly or annually). Thestorage manager 140 or other components may enforce the provisioningpolicy. For instance, the media agents 144 may enforce the policy whentransferring data to secondary storage devices 108. If a clientcomputing device 102 exceeds a quota, a budget for the client computingdevice 102 (or associated department) is adjusted accordingly or analert may trigger.

While the above types of information management policies 148 have beendescribed as separate policies, one or more of these can be generallycombined into a single information management policy 148. For instance,a storage policy may also include or otherwise be associated with one ormore scheduling, audit, or provisioning policies. Moreover, whilestorage policies are typically associated with moving and storing data,other policies may be associated with other types of informationmanagement operations. The following is a non-exhaustive list of itemsthe information management policies 148 may specify:

-   -   schedules or other timing information, e.g., specifying when        and/or how often to perform information management operations;    -   the type of copy 116 (e.g., type of secondary copy) and/or copy        format (e.g., snapshot, backup, archive, HSM, etc.);    -   a location or a class or quality of storage for storing        secondary copies 116 (e.g., one or more particular secondary        storage devices 108);    -   preferences regarding whether and how to encrypt, compress,        deduplicate, or otherwise modify or transform secondary copies        116;    -   which system components and/or network pathways (e.g., preferred        media agents 144) should be used to perform secondary storage        operations;    -   resource allocation between different computing devices or other        system components used in performing information management        operations (e.g., bandwidth allocation, available storage        capacity, etc.);    -   whether and how to synchronize or otherwise distribute files or        other data objects across multiple computing devices or hosted        services; and    -   retention information specifying the length of time primary data        112 and/or secondary copies 116 should be retained, e.g., in a        particular class or tier of storage devices, or within the        information management system 100.

Policies can additionally specify or depend on a variety of historicalor current criteria that may be used to determine which rules to applyto a particular data object, system component, or information managementoperation, such as:

-   -   frequency with which primary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 of        a data object or metadata has been or is predicted to be used,        accessed, or modified;    -   time-related factors (e.g., aging information such as time since        the creation or modification of a data object);    -   deduplication information (e.g., hashes, data blocks,        deduplication block size, deduplication efficiency or other        metrics);    -   an estimated or historic usage or cost associated with different        components (e.g., with secondary storage devices 108);    -   the identity of users, applications 110, client computing        devices 102 and/or other computing devices that created,        accessed, modified, or otherwise utilized primary data 112 or        secondary copies 116;    -   a relative sensitivity (e.g., confidentiality) of a data object,        e.g., as determined by its content and/or metadata;    -   the current or historical storage capacity of various storage        devices;    -   the current or historical network capacity of network pathways        connecting various components within the storage operation cell;    -   access control lists or other security information; and    -   the content of a particular data object (e.g., its textual        content) or of metadata associated with the data object.

Exemplary Storage Policy and Secondary Storage Operations

FIG. 1E shows a data flow data diagram depicting performance of storageoperations by an embodiment of an information management system 100,according to an exemplary storage policy 148A. The informationmanagement system 100 includes a storage manger 140, a client computingdevice 102 having a file system data agent 142A and an email data agent142B residing thereon, a primary storage device 104, two media agents144A, 144B, and two secondary storage devices 108A, 108B: a disk library108A and a tape library 108B. As shown, the primary storage device 104includes primary data 112A, 112B associated with a logical grouping ofdata associated with a file system) and a logical grouping of dataassociated with email data, respectively. Although for simplicity thelogical grouping of data associated with the file system is referred toas a file system sub-client, and the logical grouping of data associatedwith the email data is referred to as an email sub-client, thetechniques described with respect to FIG. 1E can be utilized inconjunction with data that is organized in a variety of other manners.

As indicated by the dashed box, the second media agent 144B and the tapelibrary 108B are “off-site”, and may therefore be remotely located fromthe other components in the information management system 100 (e.g., ina different city, office building, etc.). Indeed, “off-site” may referto a magnetic tape located in storage, which must be manually retrievedand loaded into a tape drive to be read. In this manner, informationstored on the tape library 108B may provide protection in the event of adisaster or other failure.

The file system sub-client and its associated primary data 112A incertain embodiments generally comprise information generated by the filesystem and/or operating system of the client computing device 102, andcan include, for example, file system data (e.g., regular files, filetables, mount points, etc.), operating system data (e.g., registries,event logs, etc.), and the like. The e-mail sub-client, on the otherhand, and its associated primary data 112B, include data generated by ane-mail client application operating on the client computing device 102,and can include mailbox information, folder information, emails,attachments, associated database information, and the like. As describedabove, the sub-clients can be logical containers, and the data includedin the corresponding primary data 112A, 112B may or may not be storedcontiguously.

The exemplary storage policy 148A includes backup copy preferences orrule set 160, disaster recovery copy preferences rule set 162, andcompliance copy preferences or rule set 164. The backup copy rule set160 specifies that it is associated with a file system sub-client 166and an email sub-client 168. Each of these sub-clients 166, 168 areassociated with the particular client computing device 102. The backupcopy rule set 160 further specifies that the backup operation will bewritten to the disk library 108A, and designates a particular mediaagent 144A to convey the data to the disk library 108A. Finally, thebackup copy rule set 160 specifies that backup copies created accordingto the rule set 160 are scheduled to be generated on an hourly basis andto be retained for 30 days. In some other embodiments, schedulinginformation is not included in the storage policy 148A, and is insteadspecified by a separate scheduling policy.

The disaster recovery copy rule set 162 is associated with the same twosub-clients 166, 168. However, the disaster recovery copy rule set 162is associated with the tape library 108B, unlike the backup copy ruleset 160. Moreover, the disaster recovery copy rule set 162 specifiesthat a different media agent 144B than the media agent 144A associatedwith the backup copy rule set 160 will be used to convey the data to thetape library 108B. As indicated, disaster recovery copies createdaccording to the rule set 162 will be retained for 60 days, and will begenerated on a daily basis. Disaster recovery copies generated accordingto the disaster recovery copy rule set 162 can provide protection in theevent of a disaster or other data-loss event that would affect thebackup copy 116A maintained on the disk library 108A.

The compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the emailsub-client 168, and not the file system sub-client 166. Compliancecopies generated according to the compliance copy rule set 164 willtherefore not include primary data 112A from the file system sub-client166. For instance, the organization may be under an obligation to storeand maintain copies of email data for a particular period of time (e.g.,10 years) to comply with state or federal regulations, while similarregulations do not apply to the file system data. The compliance copyrule set 164 is associated with the same tape library 108B and mediaagent 144B as the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, although adifferent storage device or media agent could be used in otherembodiments. Finally, the compliance copy rule set 164 specifies thatcopies generated under the compliance copy rule set 164 will be retainedfor 10 years, and will be generated on a quarterly basis.

At step 1, the storage manager 140 initiates a backup operationaccording to the backup copy rule set 160. For instance, a schedulingservice running on the storage manager 140 accesses schedulinginformation from the backup copy rule set 160 or a separate schedulingpolicy associated with the client computing device 102, and initiates abackup copy operation on an hourly basis. Thus, at the scheduled timeslot the storage manager 140 sends instructions to the client computingdevice 102 to begin the backup operation.

At step 2, the file system data agent 142A and the email data agent 142Bresiding on the client computing device 102 respond to the instructionsreceived from the storage manager 140 by accessing and processing theprimary data 112A, 112B involved in the copy operation from the primarystorage device 104. Because the operation is a backup copy operation,the data agent(s) 142A, 142B may format the data into a backup format orotherwise process the data.

At step 3, the client computing device 102 communicates the retrieved,processed data to the first media agent 144A, as directed by the storagemanager 140, according to the backup copy rule set 160. In some otherembodiments, the information management system 100 may implement aload-balancing, availability-based, or other appropriate algorithm toselect from the available set of media agents 144A, 144B. Regardless ofthe manner the media agent 144A is selected, the storage manager 140 mayfurther keep a record in the storage manager database 146 of theassociation between the selected media agent 144A and the clientcomputing device 102 and/or between the selected media agent 144A andthe backup copy 116A.

The target media agent 144A receives the data from the client computingdevice 102, and at step 4 conveys the data to the disk library 108A tocreate the backup copy 116A, again at the direction of the storagemanager 140 and according to the backup copy rule set 160. The secondarystorage device 108A can be selected in other ways. For instance, themedia agent 144A may have a dedicated association with a particularsecondary storage device(s), or the storage manager 140 or media agent144A may select from a plurality of secondary storage devices, e.g.,according to availability, using one of the techniques described in U.S.Pat. No. 7,246,207, which is incorporated by reference herein.

The media agent 144A can also update its index 153 to include dataand/or metadata related to the backup copy 116A, such as informationindicating where the backup copy 116A resides on the disk library 108A,data and metadata for cache retrieval, etc. After the 30 day retentionperiod expires, the storage manager 140 instructs the media agent 144Ato delete the backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A. The storagemanager 140 may similarly update its index 150 to include informationrelating to the storage operation, such as information relating to thetype of storage operation, a physical location associated with one ormore copies created by the storage operation, the time the storageoperation was performed, status information relating to the storageoperation, the components involved in the storage operation, and thelike. In some cases, the storage manager 140 may update its index 150 toinclude some or all of the information stored in the index 153 of themedia agent 144A.

At step 5, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of a disasterrecovery copy 116B according to the disaster recovery copy rule set 162.For instance, at step 6, based on instructions received from the storagemanager 140 at step 5, the specified media agent 144B retrieves the mostrecent backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A.

At step 7, again at the direction of the storage manager 140 and asspecified in the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, the media agent144B uses the retrieved data to create a disaster recovery copy 116B onthe tape library 108B. In some cases, the disaster recovery copy 116B isa direct, mirror copy of the backup copy 116A, and remains in the backupformat. In other embodiments, the disaster recovery copy 116B may begenerated in some other manner, such as by using the primary data 112A,112B from the primary storage device 104 as source data. The disasterrecovery copy operation is initiated once a day and the disasterrecovery copies 116B are deleted after 60 days.

At step 8, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of acompliance copy 116C, according to the compliance copy rule set 164. Forinstance, the storage manager 140 instructs the media agent 144B tocreate the compliance copy 116C on the tape library 108B at step 9, asspecified in the compliance copy rule set 164. In the example, thecompliance copy 116C is generated using the disaster recovery copy 116B.In other embodiments, the compliance copy 116C is instead generatedusing either the primary data 112B corresponding to the email sub-clientor using the backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A as source data.As specified, in the illustrated example, compliance copies 116C arecreated quarterly, and are deleted after ten years.

While not shown in FIG. 1E, at some later point in time, a restoreoperation can be initiated involving one or more of the secondary copies116A, 116B, 116C. As one example, a user may manually initiate a restoreof the backup copy 116A by interacting with the user interface 158 ofthe storage manager 140. The storage manager 140 then accesses data inits index 150 (and/or the respective storage policy 148A) associatedwith the selected backup copy 116A to identify the appropriate mediaagent 144A and/or secondary storage device 108A.

In other cases, a media agent may be selected for use in the restoreoperation based on a load balancing algorithm, an availability basedalgorithm, or other criteria. The selected media agent 144A retrievesthe data from the disk library 108A. For instance, the media agent 144Amay access its index 153 to identify a location of the backup copy 116Aon the disk library 108A, or may access location information residing onthe disk 108A itself.

When the backup copy 116A was recently created or accessed, the mediaagent 144A accesses a cached version of the backup copy 116A residing inthe index 153, without having to access the disk library 108A for someor all of the data. Once it has retrieved the backup copy 116A, themedia agent 144A communicates the data to the source client computingdevice 102. Upon receipt, the file system data agent 142A and the emaildata agent 142B may unpackage (e.g., restore from a backup format to thenative application format) the data in the backup copy 116A and restorethe unpackaged data to the primary storage device 104.

Exemplary Applications of Storage Policies

The storage manager 140 may permit a user to specify aspects of thestorage policy 148A. For example, the storage policy can be modified toinclude information governance policies to define how data should bemanaged in order to comply with a certain regulation or businessobjective. The various policies may be stored, for example, in thedatabase 146. An information governance policy may comprise aclassification policy, which is described herein. An informationgovernance policy may align with one or more compliance tasks that areimposed by regulations or business requirements. Examples of informationgovernance policies might include a Sarbanes-Oxley policy, a HIPAApolicy, an electronic discovery (E-Discovery) policy, and so on.

Information governance policies allow administrators to obtain differentperspectives on all of an organization's online and offline data,without the need for a dedicated data silo created solely for eachdifferent viewpoint. As described previously, the data storage systemsherein build a centralized index that reflects the contents of adistributed data set that spans numerous clients and storage devices,including both primary and secondary copies, and online and offlinecopies. An organization may apply multiple information governancepolicies in a top-down manner over that unified data set and indexingschema in order to permit an organization to view and manipulate thesingle data set through different lenses, each of which is adapted to aparticular compliance or business goal. Thus, for example, by applyingan E-discovery policy and a Sarbanes-Oxley policy, two different groupsof users in an organization can conduct two very different analyses ofthe same underlying physical set of data copies, which may bedistributed throughout the organization.

A classification policy defines a taxonomy of classification terms ortags relevant to a compliance task and/or business objective. Aclassification policy may also associate a defined tag with aclassification rule. A classification rule defines a particularcombination of data criteria, such as users who have created, accessedor modified a document or data object; file or application types;content or metadata keywords; clients or storage locations; dates ofdata creation and/or access; review status or other status within aworkflow (e.g., reviewed or un-reviewed); modification times or types ofmodifications; and/or any other data attributes. A classification rulemay also be defined using other classification tags in the taxonomy. Thevarious criteria used to define a classification rule may be combined inany suitable fashion, for example, via Boolean operators, to define acomplex classification rule. As an example, an E-discoveryclassification policy might define a classification tag “privileged”that is associated with documents or data objects that (1) were createdor modified by legal department staff, (2) were sent to or received fromoutside counsel via email, and/or (3) contain one of the followingkeywords: “privileged” or “attorney,” “counsel”, or other terms.

One specific type of classification tag, which may be added to an indexat the time of indexing, is an entity tag. An entity tag may be, forexample, any content that matches a defined data mask format. Examplesof entity tags might include, e.g., social security numbers (e.g., anynumerical content matching the formatting mask XXX-XX-XXXX), credit cardnumbers (e.g., content having a 13-16 digit string of numbers), SKUnumbers, product numbers, etc.

A user may define a classification policy by indicating criteria,parameters or descriptors of the policy via a graphical user interfacethat provides facilities to present information and receive input data,such as a form or page with fields to be filled in, pull-down menus orentries allowing one or more of several options to be selected, buttons,sliders, hypertext links or other known user interface tools forreceiving user input. For example, a user may define certain entitytags, such as a particular product number or project ID code that isrelevant in the organization.

In some implementations, the classification policy can be implementedusing cloud-based techniques. For example, the storage devices may becloud storage devices, and the storage manager 140 may execute cloudservice provider API over a network to classify data stored on cloudstorage devices.

Exemplary Secondary Copy Formatting

The formatting and structure of secondary copies 116 can vary, dependingon the embodiment. In some cases, secondary copies 116 are formatted asa series of logical data units or “chunks” (e.g., 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB,or 8GB chunks). This can facilitate efficient communication and writingto secondary storage devices 108, e.g., according to resourceavailability. For example, a single secondary copy 116 may be written ona chunk-by-chunk basis to a single secondary storage device 108 oracross multiple secondary storage devices 108. In some cases, users canselect different chunk sizes, e.g., to improve throughput to tapestorage devices.

Generally, each chunk can include a header and a payload. The payloadcan include files (or other data units) or subsets thereof included inthe chunk, whereas the chunk header generally includes metadata relatingto the chunk, some or all of which may be derived from the payload. Forexample, during a secondary copy operation, the media agent 144, storagemanager 140, or other component may divide the associated files intochunks and generate headers for each chunk by processing the constituentfiles.

The headers can include a variety of information such as fileidentifier(s), volume(s), offset(s), or other information associatedwith the payload data items, a chunk sequence number, etc. Importantly,in addition to being stored with the secondary copy 116 on the secondarystorage device 108, the chunk headers can also be stored to the index153 of the associated media agent(s) 144 and/or the index 150. This isuseful in some cases for providing faster processing of secondary copies116 during restores or other operations. In some cases, once a chunk issuccessfully transferred to a secondary storage device 108, thesecondary storage device 108 returns an indication of receipt, e.g., tothe media agent 144 and/or storage manager 140, which may update theirrespective indexes 153, 150 accordingly. During restore, chunks may beprocessed (e.g., by the media agent 144) according to the information inthe chunk header to reassemble the files.

Data can also be communicated within the information management system100 in data channels that connect the client computing devices 102 tothe secondary storage devices 108. These data channels can be referredto as “data streams”, and multiple data streams can be employed toparallelize an information management operation, improving data transferrate, among providing other advantages. Example data formattingtechniques including techniques involving data streaming, chunking, andthe use of other data structures in creating copies (e.g., secondarycopies) are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,315,923 and 8,156,086, and8,578,120, each of which is incorporated by reference herein.

FIGS. 1F and 1G are diagrams of example data streams 170 and 171,respectively, which may be employed for performing data storageoperations. Referring to FIG. 1F, the data agent 142 forms the datastream 170 from the data associated with a client computing device 102(e.g., primary data 112). The data stream 170 is composed of multiplepairs of stream header 172 and stream data (or stream payload) 174. Thedata streams 170 and 171 shown in the illustrated example are for asingle-instanced storage operation, and a stream payload 174 thereforemay include both single-instance (“SI”) data and/or non-SI data. Astream header 172 includes metadata about the stream payload 174. Thismetadata may include, for example, a length of the stream payload 174,an indication of whether the stream payload 174 is encrypted, anindication of whether the stream payload 174 is compressed, an archivefile identifier (ID), an indication of whether the stream payload 174 issingle instanceable, and an indication of whether the stream payload 174is a start of a block of data.

Referring to FIG. 1G, the data stream 171 has the stream header 172 andstream payload 174 aligned into multiple data blocks. In this example,the data blocks are of size 64KB. The first two stream header 172 andstream payload 174 pairs comprise a first data block of size 64KB. Thefirst stream header 172 indicates that the length of the succeedingstream payload 174 is 63KB and that it is the start of a data block. Thenext stream header 172 indicates that the succeeding stream payload 174has a length of 1KB and that it is not the start of a new data block.Immediately following stream payload 174 is a pair comprising anidentifier header 176 and identifier data 178. The identifier header 176includes an indication that the succeeding identifier data 178 includesthe identifier for the immediately previous data block. The identifierdata 178 includes the identifier that the data agent 142 generated forthe data block. The data stream 171 also includes other stream header172 and stream payload 174 pairs, which may be for SI data and/or fornon-SI data.

FIG. 1H is a diagram illustrating the data structures 180 that may beused to store blocks of SI data and non-SI data on the storage device(e.g., secondary storage device 108). According to certain embodiments,the data structures 180 do not form part of a native file system of thestorage device. The data structures 180 include one or more volumefolders 182, one or more chunk folders 184/185 within the volume folder182, and multiple files within the chunk folder 184. Each chunk folder184/185 includes a metadata file 186/187, a metadata index file 188/189,one or more container files 190/191/193, and a container index file192/194. The metadata file 186/187 stores non-SI data blocks as well aslinks to SI data blocks stored in container files. The metadata indexfile 188/189 stores an index to the data in the metadata file 186/187.The container files 190/191/193 store SI data blocks. The containerindex file 192/194 stores an index to the container files 190/191/193.Among other things, the container index file 192/194 stores anindication of whether a corresponding block in a container file190/191/193 is referred to by a link in a metadata file 186/187. Forexample, data block B2 in the container file 190 is referred to by alink in the metadata file 187 in the chunk folder 185. Accordingly, thecorresponding index entry in the container index file 192 indicates thatthe data block B2 in the container file 190 is referred to. As anotherexample, data block B1 in the container file 191 is referred to by alink in the metadata file 187, and so the corresponding index entry inthe container index file 192 indicates that this data block is referredto.

As an example, the data structures 180 illustrated in FIG. 1H may havebeen created as a result of two storage operations involving two clientcomputing devices 102. For example, a first storage operation on a firstclient computing device 102 could result in the creation of the firstchunk folder 184, and a second storage operation on a second clientcomputing device 102 could result in the creation of the second chunkfolder 185. The container files 190/191 in the first chunk folder 184would contain the blocks of SI data of the first client computing device102. If the two client computing devices 102 have substantially similardata, the second storage operation on the data of the second clientcomputing device 102 would result in the media agent 144 storingprimarily links to the data blocks of the first client computing device102 that are already stored in the container files 190/191. Accordingly,while a first storage operation may result in storing nearly all of thedata subject to the storage operation, subsequent storage operationsinvolving similar data may result in substantial data storage spacesavings, because links to already stored data blocks can be storedinstead of additional instances of data blocks.

If the operating system of the secondary storage computing device 106 onwhich the media agent 144 resides supports sparse files, then when themedia agent 144 creates container files 190/191/193, it can create themas sparse files. As previously described, a sparse file is type of filethat may include empty space (e.g., a sparse file may have real datawithin it, such as at the beginning of the file and/or at the end of thefile, but may also have empty space in it that is not storing actualdata, such as a contiguous range of bytes all having a value of zero).Having the container files 190/191/193 be sparse files allows the mediaagent 144 to free up space in the container files 190/191/193 whenblocks of data in the container files 190/191/193 no longer need to bestored on the storage devices. In some examples, the media agent 144creates a new container file 190/191/193 when a container file190/191/193 either includes 100 blocks of data or when the size of thecontainer file 190 exceeds 50 MB. In other examples, the media agent 144creates a new container file 190/191/193 when a container file190/191/193 satisfies other criteria (e.g., it contains fromapproximately 100 to approximately 1000 blocks or when its size exceedsapproximately 50 MB to 1 GB).

In some cases, a file on which a storage operation is performed maycomprise a large number of data blocks. For example, a 100 MB file maybe comprised in 400 data blocks of size 256 KB. If such a file is to bestored, its data blocks may span more than one container file, or evenmore than one chunk folder. As another example, a database file of 20 GBmay comprise over 40,000 data blocks of size 512 KB. If such a databasefile is to be stored, its data blocks will likely span multiplecontainer files, multiple chunk folders, and potentially multiple volumefolders. As described in detail herein, restoring such files may thusrequire accessing multiple container files, chunk folders, and/or volumefolders to obtain the requisite data blocks.

Cross-System Storage Management For Transferring Data Across AutonomousInformation Management Systems

Typically, each information management system operates under themanagement of a storage manager 140. Thus, each storage manager managesthe particular components of the information management system under itscontrol—and does so separately and autonomously from any otherinformation management systems, which are managed by other respectivestorage managers. As explained above, some configurations enable ahierarchy of information management systems or cells in which onestorage manager acts as the master over subordinate systems/cells andtheir respective constituent components. However, hierarchicalconfigurations like these, though advantageous in many ways, tend to addcomplexity to the enterprise as a whole. They typically requiresubstantial infrastructure, administration, ongoing maintenance, andresources, as well as relatively massive exchanges of administrativedata and updates. They are not a good fit for every scenario thatrequires data to be transferred from one information management systemto another, and moreover, they do not preserve the autonomy of eachinformation management system. Likewise with configurations wherein aclient computing device is configured to be part of two or moredifferent information management systems (or two or more informationmanagement cells); overlapping information management systems such asthese are not autonomous relative to each other.

One scenario where a hierarchical configuration or an overlappingconfiguration is unsuitable is when an enterprise faces the need for anoccasional data transfer from one information management system toanother autonomous information management system. For example, certaindata generated by one system's client computing device, (e.g., acomputer in the Finance department) is needed by another clientcomputing device that operates in a different information managementsystem (e.g., in the Audit department at a distant location). TheFinance department's computing devices are components of one informationmanagement system, but the Audit department's computing devices arecomponents of another. But despite the need for the data transfer, theenterprise neither needs nor wants a hierarchical, overlapping, or othercomplex configuration for such a transaction, and instead needs tomaintain the autonomy of the different information management systems.The need exists for a streamlined cross-system storage managementoperation that transfers data from one component of an informationmanagement system to a different component of another autonomousinformation management system without interfering with or overridingeach system's autonomy.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating some salient portions of anexemplary system 200 for transferring one client's data from thesecondary storage subsystem of an information management system to adifferent client in another, autonomous, information management system.FIG. 2A depicts two autonomous, but communicatively coupled, informationmanagement systems, system 1 and system 2. A desired cross-system datatransfer of the secondary copy of client-A data 116 to client computingdevice 202 (client B) is made possible by system 200. Notably, thecross-system data transfer operation according to the illustrativeembodiment is consistent with information management operations asdescribed herein, e.g., “restore” 116 to client B, and therefore, thedata transfer operation may be tracked, indexed, logged, etc. inaccordance with the procedures of the transmitting informationmanagement system, e.g., generating corresponding metadata in system 1.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of system 200 is that client Bremains at all times, whether or not communicatively coupled to acomponent of information management system 1, under the autonomousmanagement of storage manager 2 as a component of information managementsystem 2. As noted earlier, this is different from hierarchical oroverlapping information management system configurations. Even whenreceiving the data transfer from information management system 1, clientB remains under autonomous management of storage manager 2, and client Bmay further engage in information management operations withininformation management system 2 (e.g., data backup of client-B data tosecondary storage in 218-2, etc.).

Information management system 1 comprises: storage manager 1 numbered240; primary storage subsystem 217-1, which comprises client computingdevice 102 (or “client A”); secondary storage subsystem 218-1, whichcomprises a secondary copy of client A's data numbered 116;communication path 114 between SM 1 and the primary storage subsystem217-1; communication path 291 between SM 1 and the secondary storagesubsystem 218-1; and communication path 114 between the primary andsecondary subsystems, as shown. Elements 102, 114, and 116 are describedin the preceding sections.

Information management system 2 comprises: storage manager 2 numbered242; primary storage subsystem 217-2, which comprises client computingdevice 202 (or “client B”); secondary storage subsystem 218-2;communication path 292 between SM 2 and primary storage subsystem 217-2;communication path 114 between SM 2 and secondary storage subsystem218-2; and communication path 114 between the primary and secondarysubsystems, as shown.

Client computing device 202, designated here as “client B,” is analogousto client computing device 102, and further comprises additionalelements that enable the cross-system data transfer from informationmanagement system 1 to occur. Client B is described in further detail ina later figure. Client B operates as a component of informationmanagement system 2. From the perspective of storage manager 1, client Bis said to be a “foreign client.”

Primary storage subsystem 217-1, which is part of information managementsystem 1, is analogous to primary storage subsystem 117 described aboveand further comprises a client computing device 102, designated here as“client A.” Client A generates primary data (e.g., production data thatoriginates in information management system 1). Client A's data(illustratively a secondary copy of client A's data, designated element116) is to be transferred across systems to client B in informationmanagement system 2. Primary storage subsystem 217-2, which is part ofinformation management system 2, is also analogous to primary storagesubsystem 117, and further comprises client B.

Secondary storage subsystem 218-1, which is part of informationmanagement system 1, is analogous to secondary storage subsystem 118described above, and further comprises a secondary copy of client-A data116. Secondary storage subsystem 218-2, which is part of informationmanagement system 2, is analogous to secondary storage subsystem 118.Secondary storage subsystem 218-2 comprises secondary copy(ies) ofclient B data (not shown).

Element 240: storage manager 1 (or “SM 1”) is a storage managercomprising the components, functionality, and operationalcharacteristics of storage manager 140 described above. SM 1 managesinformation management system 1. SM 1 further comprises additionalfunctionality and operational characteristics that are described belowand with respect to the accompanying figures. For example, SM 1 iscapable of initiating and managing a cross-system data transferoperation; to do this, SM 1 comprises appropriate functional modules,data structures, messaging, connectivity, etc.

Element 242: storage manager 2 (or “SM 2”) is a storage managercomprising the components, functionality, and operationalcharacteristics of storage manager 140. SM 2 manages informationmanagement system 2. SM 2 further comprises additional functionality andoperational characteristics that are described below and with respect tothe accompanying figures. For example, SM 2 is capable of initiatingand/or enabling a cross-system data transfer operation, which is to bemanaged by SM 1; to do this, SM 2 comprises appropriate functionalmodules, messaging, connectivity, etc.

Communication pathway (or “path”) 290 provides communicative couplingbetween SM 1 and SM 2, e.g., via respective management agent(s) 154 (notshown), and/or via other special-purpose functional modules, etc.,without limitation. Like communication pathways 114, path 290 caninclude one or more public and private networks, network elements,transport technologies, and/or routing/switching technologies over localand/or wide area territory, wired and/or wireless, etc., as describedfor pathways 114. SM 1 and SM 2 may be in direct electroniccommunication, e.g., via dedicated lines; or may be indirectlyconnected, e.g., via public and/or private telecommunications network(s)such as a private intranet and/or the Internet, without limitation.Communication path 290 need not be persistent (i.e., always “on”) andmay be an intermittent connection (e.g., on demand, scheduled, etc.)that is initiated by either one of SM 1 or SM 2.

Communication pathway 291 provides communicative coupling between SM 1and one or more components of secondary storage subsystem 218-1. Asexplained above in regard to path 290, path 291 may comprise one or moresub-elements and technologies, may be direct or indirect, and may or maynot be a persistent connection as to any one component. Path 291additionally may carry specialized messaging and/or signaling to supportthe functionalities of the illustrative embodiment.

Communication pathway 292 provides communicative coupling between SM 2and one or more components of primary storage subsystem 217-2. Asexplained above in regard to path 290 and path 291, path 292 maycomprise one or more sub-elements and technologies, may be direct orindirect, and may or may not be a persistent connection as to any onecomponent. Path 292 additionally may carry specialized messaging and/orsignaling to support the functionalities of the illustrative embodiment.

Communication pathway 293 provides communicative coupling between clientB in information management system 2 and, at any given time, one or morecomponents of secondary storage subsystem 218-1 in informationmanagement system 1; path 293 enables a copy of client-A data to betransferred (i.e., electronically transmitted) cross-system frominformation management system 1 to information management system 2. Asexplained above in regard to paths 290, 291, and 292, path 293 maycomprise one or more sub-elements and technologies, may be direct orindirect, and may or may not be a persistent connection. Path 293additionally may carry specialized messaging and/or signaling to supportthe functionalities of the illustrative embodiment.

System 200 may comprise both information management system 1 andinformation management system 2, or just one of them, or componentsthereof, or any number of information management systems, in anycombination, without limitation. A configuration wherein system 200comprises more than one information management system, such as system 1and system 2, does not negate the autonomy of one constituentinformation management system relative to the other.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram detailing some elements of system 200. FIG.2B depicts: SM 1 comprising a module 250 and a module 260; communicationpath 291; secondary storage subsystem 218-1, which comprises a secondarycopy of client-A data 116; communication path 290; SM 2 comprisingmodule 252 and module 262; communication path 292; client computingdevice 202 comprising binary files 283; and a first instance 282-1 of aninformation management software, which software instance may execute ondevice 202, and a second instance 282-2 of the information managementsoftware, which software instance may execute on device 202. The otherelements depicted here were described in regard to the preceding figure.

Module 250 in SM 1 (“Client-A Mgmt.”) logically comprises the managementelements needed by SM 1 to properly manage client A (and likely otherclients, not shown) as components of information management system 1.Module 250, which is shown as a unified block in the present figure,logically comprises aspects of information management policies 148 andindex 150 and jobs agent 156 (described above) as they pertain to clientA. For example and without limitation, module 250 logically comprisesstorage policies to protect client-A data, storage management job statusand tracking with respect to client-A data, indexing/metadata ofmovement of data from primary storage associated with client A tosecondary storage devices 108 that store the secondary copy of client-Adata 116, data/metadata associating client A with a particular mediaagent and/or secondary storage device, as specified in a given storagepolicy, etc. Notably, according to the illustrative embodiment, module250 is not accessible to SM 2, because client A operates underautonomous management by SM 1 as a component of information managementsystem 1. Client A is not a component of information management system2.

Module 252 in SM 2 (“Client-B Mgmt.”) logically comprises the managementelements needed by SM 2 to properly manage client B (and likely otherclients, not shown) as components of information management system 2.Module 252, which is shown as a unified block in the present figure,comprises aspects of information management policies 148 and index 150and jobs agent 156 (described above) as they pertain to client B ininformation management system 2. For example and without limitation,module 252 logically comprises storage policies to protect client-Bdata, storage management job status and tracking with respect toclient-B data, indexing/metadata of movement of data from primarystorage associated with client B to secondary storage devices insecondary storage subsystem 218-2, data/metadata associating client Bwith a particular media agent and/or secondary storage device, asspecified in a given storage policy, etc. Notably, according to theillustrative embodiment, module 252 is not accessible to SM 1, becauseclient B operates under autonomous management by SM 2 as a component ofinformation management system 2. Client B is not a component ofinformation management system 1.

Module 260 in SM 1 logically comprises a data structure 260′ and afunctional sub-module 260″ that operate in reference cross-system datatransfer operation(s). In some embodiments, module 260 is a unifiedmodule comprising its constituent components, and in alternativeembodiments the constituent components are separately situated in otherfunctional modules and/or components of information management system 1.SM 1 may be configured for any number of cross-system data transfers toone or more foreign clients such as client B operating in any number offoreign information management systems.

Data structure 260′ is a special-purpose (“registry-only”) datastructure used by SM 1 to manage cross-system data transfer(s). Datastructure 260′ comprises, e.g., a minimal amount of information about agiven foreign component such as client B, sufficient for SM 1 to managethe cross-system data transfer from information management system 1 tothe foreign component, but not more. This information is received fromand/or via SM 2. In contrast to module 250 and any associatedfunctionality whereby SM 1 manages client A as a fully functionalcomponent of information management system 1, data structure 260′provides SM 1 with just enough foreign-component (e.g., client B)information to allow for the data transfer—hence the information in datastructure 260′ is referred to as “registry-only.” The registry-onlyinformation in data structure 260′ is also insufficient for SM 1 tomanage the foreign component (e.g., client B) as a component ofinformation management system 1; the foreign component such as client Bremains at all times under autonomous management by SM 2 as a componentof information management system 2 (whether or not the foreign component(e.g., client B) is communicatively coupled to one or more components ofinformation management system 1 at any given time).

Registry-Only Information. Illustratively and without limitation, inreference to illustrative foreign component client B, data structure260′ includes the following registry-only information: host name ofclient computing device 202, client name of client B as defined ininformation management system 2, and in some embodiments also includes adigital certificate to enable secure communications to/from client B. Incontrast, module 250 whereby SM 1 manages client A as a component ofsystem 1, includes a number of management elements, such as jobs data,storage policies, identities of associated media agents, secondarystorage indexing, etc. No such management elements are transmitted by SM2 to SM 1 in reference to client B, and therefore no such information isavailable to SM 1 to store in data structure 260′, and consequently SM 1is not capable of asserting management control over client B. Thus, SM 1“knows about” the existence of client B, enough to have data transferredto client B, but SM 1 cannot manage client B. Each foreign componentsuch as client B that belongs to a foreign information management systemother than information management system 1 may have its own uniquelyconfigured data structure 260′ in SM 1.

Functional module 260″ enables SM 1 to initiate, manage, monitor,terminate, and/or report on any cross-system data transfer frominformation management system 1 to a foreign component (e.g., client B)in information management system 2. Functional module 260″ may logicallycomprise one or more sub-components that reside in one or more otherfunctional modules of SM 1. For example, communications functions forcommunicatively coupling to SM 2 may be part of a module analogous tomanagement agent 154; this may also include new messages, signaling, andstatus elements. For example, user interface elements may be added to amodule analogous to user interface module 158, for example, to allow auser to invoke a transfer of data from information management system 1to a foreign component (e.g., “restore” a secondary copy of client-Adata to client B in information management system 2, accept a“restore-to-client-B” request from SM 2, etc.). Each foreign componentsuch as client B that belongs to a foreign information management systemother than information management system 1 may have its own uniquelyconfigured functional module 260″ in SM 1, as appropriate. In someembodiments, functional module 260″ may support any number of foreigncomponents in any number of foreign information management systems.Functional module 260″ supports any number of simultaneous cross-systemdata transfers according to the illustrative embodiments. Moreover, themanagement that SM 1 exerts over client A is autonomous from anycross-system data transfer managed by SM 1.

In some embodiments, module 260 also incorporates the functionality ofmodule 262 described below, such that one or more clients that operatein information management system 1 such as client A may be “foreignclients” to another foreign information management system such asinformation management system 2.

Module 262 in SM 2 supports cross-system data transfers from another“foreign” information management system to a component of informationmanagement system 2. For example, the indirect communicative couplingbetween SM 1 and client B illustrated by dotted communication path 290′is made possible by module 262, e.g., module 262 operates as anintermediary, interpreter and/or relay between SM 1 and client B. Module262 enables SM 2 to request and/or respond to requests for and toparticipate in and/or facilitate cross-system data transfers to acomponent such as client B in information management system 2. Module262 may logically comprise sub-components that reside in one or moreother functional modules of SM 2. For example, communication functionsfor communicatively coupling to SM 1 may be part of a module analogousto management agent 154; this may include new messages, signaling, andstatus elements for cross-system data transfers; likewise new commands,instructions, and/or messages for communicating with client B inreference to a cross-system data transfer also may be part of such anagent or may be a separate sub-module (for example, for instructingclient B to create and/or activate a second instance of informationmanagement software 282 that resides on client B). For example, userinterface elements may be added to a module analogous to user interfacemodule 158. Each local client such as client B that is a proper targetfor a cross-system data transfer may have its own uniquely configuredmodule 262 as appropriate. In some embodiments, module 262 may support aplurality of local clients.

Also, SM 2 may comprise a specially configured instance of module 262for each foreign storage manager such as SM 1; for example, an instanceof module 262 may be created by SM 2 when it receives a request orinquiry from a given foreign storage manager. Module 262 supports anynumber of simultaneous cross-system data transfers according to theillustrative embodiment. Moreover, the management that SM 2 exerts overa local client such as client B is autonomous from any cross-system datatransfer managed by SM 1 to that same local client. In some embodiments,module 262 on SM 2 also incorporates the functionality of module 260described above.

Client B. To operate as a “client” component in information managementsystem 2 (herein designated “client B”), client computing device 202executes information management software (e.g., storage managementsoftware, data management and protection software, data managementsoftware, etc., which is illustratively designated 282 (not shown)). Theparticular software instance of the information management software thatexecutes in this context enables SM 2 to protect and manage at leastsome of the data generated at device 202, and may comprise a data agentdescribed above. Accordingly, when an instance (or “software instance”)282-2 of the information management software executes on clientcomputing device 202, client B operates under the management of SM 2 asa component of information management system 2. This relationship isdepicted by the dotted communication path 292′ between software instance282-2 and module 252. Software instance 282-2 uses, e.g., binary files283. An instance of a software program is a copy of an executableversion of the software program (e.g., information management software282) that has been written to the memory of a computing device on whichthe software instance executes.

According to the illustrative embodiment, plural instances of theinformation management software execute on a given client computingdevice, based on shared binary files 293, such that each executingsoftware instance 282-n is directed to interactions with a respectivestorage manager. Illustratively, software instances 282-1 and 282-2execute on client computing device 202.

When software instance 282-1 executes, client B may receive datatransfer(s) from information management system 1. Software instance282-1 relates to SM 1 for purposes of cross-system data transfers.Communicative coupling between SM 1 and client B is indirect, such thatthe communication path therebetween comprises SM 2, as illustrated bythe dotted path designated 290′. Any messages (e.g., commands, queries,instructions, etc.) from SM 1 that may be ultimately directed to clientB, are therefore received and processed by SM2, and may be transmittedby SM 2 to client B as appropriate. In some embodiments SM 1 mayestablish a direct communication path to client B (using softwareinstance 282-1). Software instance 282-1 may execute concurrently withsoftware instance 282-2, but software instance 282-1 need not be alwaysexecuting. As explained later on, software instance 282-1 may beginexecuting on demand or on a schedule, and in some embodiments it does sounder instructions received from SM 2 and/or SM 1.

Shared binary files (or “shared binaries”) 283 illustratively compriseobject code (e.g., an executable version of the information managementsoftware (e.g., .EXE file), associated libraries (e.g., “.DLL” file(s)),etc.), which may execute on the client computing device 202 as one ormore software instances 282-n. By sharing one set of binary files, onlyone version of the information management software needs to bemaintained and/or upgraded in a given client. This tends to make system200 less prone to error and more efficient to operate. More generally,the use of multiple software instances of the same informationmanagement software and the sharing of binaries 283 is advantageous,because it is simple to set up and configure and consumes Client-Bmemory sparingly. In contrast, separate installations of the informationmanagement software would involve redundant binaries, would take longer,and would be prone to user error or software incompatibilities among theseparate installations.

FIG. 2C is a block diagram detailing some additional elements of system200 that were not shown in the preceding figures, including: secondarystorage computing device 106; secondary storage device 108, comprisingthe secondary copy of client-A data 116; communication path 293connecting client B and device 106; and the cross-system data transfer293′ that moves data from 108 via 106 to client B.

Secondary storage computing device 106 was described in detail above.Device 106 in the present Figure comprises several components ofinformation management system 1, including media agent(s), a media agentdatabase, and an associated index. In reference to the illustrativeembodiment of the present invention, at least one media agent on device106 is associated with the secondary copy of client-A data 116 thatresides on storage device 108.

Secondary storage device 108 was described in detail above, andcomprises a secondary copy of client-A data 116 that is to betransferred cross-system to client B. In some embodiments, the data tobe transferred from information management system 1 to informationmanagement system 2 resides in a component of information managementsystem 1 other than a secondary storage device, e.g., in primarystorage, in tertiary storage, on a media agent, on a storage manager,etc.

Communication path 293, which is established under the management of SM1 (e.g., executing module 260, etc.), communicatively couples client Band device 106. According to the illustrative embodiment, communicationpath 293 is established on demand for each cross-system data transfer,but in some embodiments path 293 is established and torn down on aschedule, and in some embodiments it persists indefinitely.

Cross-system data transfer 293′ comprises source data 116 beingretrieved from secondary storage on device 108 and transmitted viadevice 106 to client B. This is illustrated by the dotted line 293′.

System 200 is merely an illustrative embodiment, and many variations canbe envisioned within the scope of the present invention. Alternativeembodiments may comprise any number of constituent components andsubsystems, e.g., any number of information management systems, anynumber of storage managers, any number of “source” clients such asclient A, any number of “foreign” or “target” components such as clientB, and any number of simultaneous and/or sequential cross-system datatransfers in any direction and/or bi-directionally between systems. Forexample, although client B is shown with only two instances of theinformation management software 282, any number of software instances ispossible, each relating to a distinct storage manager. The source data(e.g., 116) may be obtained from any number of clients such as client A.The cross-system data transfers may occur to any number of foreigncomponents such as client B in one or more information managementsystems.

FIG. 3 depicts some salient operations of a method 300 according to anillustrative embodiment of the present invention. Illustrative system200 and relevant components thereof execute method 300 as described infurther detail below. Method 300 is at least in part directed atenabling a cross-system data transfer to occur in system 200, e.g., bysetting up communication path(s), transmitting necessary information,establishing software instances, etc. To actually execute a cross-systemdata transfer, control passes from method 300 to method 400 and/ormethod 500 described in later figures.

At block 301, a communication path (e.g., 290) is established between SM1 and SM 2. The communication path may be originated by SM 1 and/or SM 2at any time. The communication path may be initiated on demand, e.g.,based on user input from the respective storage manager's console/userinterface, and/or it may automatically set up and/or tear down accordingto administrative criteria.

At block 303, SM 2 manages client B such that client B operates as acomponent of information management system 2, e.g., according to module252. Client B is communicatively coupled to SM 2 via communication path292, using a first instance of information management software 282-2,based on binary files 283.

At block 305, SM 2 receives from SM 1 a request to enable (i.e., to setup but not necessarily to execute) a cross-system data transfer frominformation management system 1 to information management system 2. Therequest may (i) comprise a request for a list of clients in informationmanagement system 2 that are available to receive the data (i.e.,candidate target clients), (ii) request only one target client, or (iii)may identify a particular client such as client B, which would be knownto SM 1 from a previous cross-system data transfer or communication withSM 2. Alternatively, the request comes from a user of SM 2.

Based on the request, SM 2 may respond with a list of candidate targetclients, upon which SM 1 transmits a selection (e.g., client B). Onceclient B has been selected as the target client, SM 2 instructs client Bto set up another instance of the information management software foruse with SM 1. SM 2 accordingly transmits the instruction(s) viacommunication path 292 to software instance 282-2, which is executing onclient B. The instructions may comprise the specifics of how to do this,e.g., instructions to create an installation folder pointing to sharedbinaries 283.

At block 307, as instructed by SM 2, client B sets up another instanceof the information management software for use with SM 1, e.g., instance282-1, such as by creating an installation folder relating to SM 1,which folder points to shared binaries 283. According to theillustrative embodiment, the configuration is based on sharing thebinaries 283 that instance 282-2 uses, but other embodiments mayimplement a different solution.

At block 309, SM 2 transmits to SM 1 registry-only information aboutclient B. As explained earlier in regard to module 260, the informationtransmitted may be the minimum “registry-only” information required tomake a cross-system data transfer possible, e.g., host name, clientname, and in some embodiments a digital certificate. However, noinformation about client B's data, sub-clients, applications, dataagents, etc. is transmitted to SM 1, i.e., no information is transmittedthat would place client B under the management of SM 1 as a component ofinformation management system 1. Client B remains under the managementof SM 2 as a component of information management system 2. One advantageof this lightweight amount of information transfer is that it keepscommunications between SM 2 and SM 1 efficient, and also takes only alight toll on processing cycles of SM 1 and SM 2.

At block 311, SM 1 receives the registry-only information about client Bfrom SM 2 and stores it in a specialized data structure (e.g., 260′) tobe used in managing the cross-system data transfer to client B. Controlpasses from this point to method 400 and/or method 500.

FIG. 4 depicts some salient operations of a method 400 according to anillustrative embodiment of the present invention. Illustrative system200 and relevant components thereof execute method 400 as described infurther detail below. Control passes to method 400 from method 300.Based at least in part on the enabling operations of method 300, method400 is at least in part directed at executing a cross-system datatransfer, e.g., by activating services at client B, instructing acomponent to transfer data to client B, etc.

At block 401, in information management system 1, which is managed by SM1, client A generates production data. According to informationmanagement policies promulgated by SM 1, a secondary copy 116 of atleast some client-A data is created and stored in a component of thesecondary storage subsystem 218-1, e.g., in secondary storage device108.

At block 403, SM 1 requests SM 2 (e.g., via communication path 290) toactivate cross-system services at client B. SM 1 may have selectedclient B from a plurality of candidates supplied previously by SM 2 andother storage managers, or SM 2 may have identified client B as theparticular target in an earlier communication to SM 1. Alternatively, SM1 requests SM 2 to activate cross-system services at some unspecifiedclient and to inform SM 1 of the choice of client.

At block 405, SM 2 (having been instructed or having autonomouslyselected client B) instructs client B to execute software instance 282-1that relates to SM 1. This instance was previously set up but was notexecuting on client B until presently instructed by SM 2.

At block 407, as instructed by SM 2, client B begins executing softwareinstance 282-1 (e.g., sharing binaries 283). By doing so, client Bactivates cross-system services at client B. As a result, client B mayreceive and interpret instruction(s) from SM 1 relating to cross-systemdata transfer, which instructions are received via SM 2. Also, byactivating cross-system services, client B may receiveconnection/communication requests from a component of informationmanagement system 1 to execute a data transfer therefrom.Simultaneously, client B remains under autonomous management by SM 2 asa component of information management system 2 (using software instance282-2).

At block 409, SM 1 (based on module 260) instructs a media agent ininformation management system 1 that is associated with the secondarycopy of client-A data 116 to establish a communication path to client B.The instruction is based on the registry info about client B that SM 1has in data structure 260′. The media agent 144 complies and establishesa data path, e.g., 293, to client B, and may not be aware that client Bis a foreign client or that client B is a component of anotherinformation management system. For example, the media agent may beinstructed to “restore” client-A data 116 to client B.

At block 411, SM 1 invokes a cross-system data transfer operation,instructing that the secondary copy of client-A data 116 is to betransmitted by media agent 144 to client B. The operation may be ondemand (e.g., driven by user input at SM 1 or SM 2, driven by thecreation of new data at client A, driven by demand for data at Client B,etc.) and/or scheduled and/or a combination, without limitation. Asecondary copy of client A-data 116 is transferred accordingly to clientB (e.g., via path 293), thus completing the cross-system data transfer293′. As noted earlier, thanks to data structure 260′, SM 1 knows enoughabout the existence of client B to properly manage a data transfer toclient B from one or more components of information management system 1.

At block 413, after the data transfer 293′ is completed, SM 1 instructsmedia agent 144 and/or client B (via SM 2) to tear down thecommunication path therebetween, e.g., path 293. In alternativeembodiments, SM 1 reports the completion of the data transfer to SM 2,which then proceeds to the next block.

At block 415, after the data transfer 293′ is completed, SM 2 instructsclient B to stop executing software instance 282-1, while client Bremains under SM 2's management as a component of information managementsystem 2. One of the effects of stopping the execution of softwareinstance 282-1, is that any communications from/to any component(s) ofinformation management system 1 end and any respective communicationpaths (e.g., 290′, 293) are torn down. Method 400 may then loop back toblock 401.

Activating the execution of software instance 282-1 and thendeactivating it as described herein (whether on demand or on a schedule)has a number of advantages. For example, communication paths and theconnectivity and processing resources they consume are minimized andused only sparingly. Another corollary advantage is that thisarchitecture enables a plurality of autonomous information managementsystems to exchange data in a “lightweight” manner that maintainsstorage management principles/features (e.g., indexing, andgeneration/storage of metadata), yet does not burden the systems withcomplex interconnections/hierarchies that need constant maintenance. Theuse of software instance(s) of a given information management softwareusing shared binaries (e.g., 282-n), means that administrators need notperform multiple full-blown installations of information managementsoftware, thus assuring that software versions are uniform and occupy asmall footprint.

FIG. 5 depicts some salient operations of a method 500 according to analternative illustrative embodiment of the present invention.Illustrative system 200 and relevant components thereof execute method500 as described in further detail below. Control passes to method 500from method 300. Based at least in part on the enabling operations ofmethod 300, method 500 is at least in part directed at an alternativemethod of executing a cross-system data transfer.

At block 501, SM 2, which manages client B as a component of informationmanagement system 2, instructs client B (e.g., via path 292 to softwareinstance 282-2) to begin executing the software instance 282-1 thatrelates to SM 1. This software instance was previously set up, but wasnot executing.

At block 503, which is analogous to block 407, Client B executessoftware instance 282-1 as instructed by SM 2 (e.g., sharing binaries283).

At block 505, SM 2 requests from SM 1 (e.g., via path 290) across-system data transfer to one of its local clients, e.g., to clientB. The request may (i) comprise a query about what source data (primary,secondary and/or tertiary) is available in information management system1, (ii) comprise a query about which clients operate in informationmanagement system 1, and/or (iii) identify a particular client ininformation management system 1 as the source of data to be transferredto information management system 2, e.g., client A.

At block 507, SM 1 instructs client B (e.g., indirectly via path 290′comprising SM 2) to establish a communication path to, or to accept acommunication initiated by, a component of information management system1. Illustratively, SM 1 instructs client B to communicatively couple toa secondary storage computing device comprising a certain media agent,e.g., device 106 comprising media agent 144. Client B complies and/orresponds and communication path 293 is established accordingly.

At block 509, which is analogous to block 401, client A generatesproduction data.

At block 511, which is analogous to block 411, SM 1 invokes across-system data transfer operation, instructing that the secondarycopy of client-A data 116 is to be transmitted by media agent 144 toclient B. The operation may be on demand and/or scheduled and/or acombination, without limitation. A secondary copy of client A-data 116is transferred accordingly to client B (e.g., via path 293), thuscompleting the cross-system data transfer 293′.

At block 513, after the cross-system data transfer 293′ is completed,client B continues to execute software instance 282-1 that relates to SM1. In some embodiments, communication path 293 and/or communication path290′ persists under the management of SM 1. In some embodiments, one ormore of the communication paths to components of information managementsystem 1 are torn down, and may be re-established under the managementof SM 1.

At block 515, client B, even while communicatively coupled to one ormore components of information management system 1 (e.g., media agent144, device 106, SM 1) remains under autonomous management by SM 2 as acomponent of information management system 2 (e.g., via path 292 tosoftware instance 282-2). Accordingly, Client B may be generating data,transmitting data, receiving data, communicating with SM 2 and/or withother components of information management system 2 throughout theduration of methods 300, 400, and/or 500. Information managementoperations involving client B may execute accordingly within informationmanagement system 2, e.g., backup, restore, etc. Method 500 may loopback to block 509.

In regard to methods 300, 400, and 500, other embodiments are possiblewithin the scope of the present invention, such that the above-recitedoperations are differently sequenced, sub-divided, organized, and/orcombined. In some embodiments, a different component may initiate orexecute a given operation. Other embodiments may incorporate one or moreoperations from methods 300, 400, and/or 500 while remaining within thescope of the present invention.

A method according to an illustrative embodiment may comprise:

-   -   in a first information management system, managing by a first        storage manager:        -   (i) a first client computing device as a component of the            first information management system and        -   (ii) a secondary copy of data generated by the first client            computing device;    -   instructing, by the first storage manager, a secondary storage        computing device in the first information management system,        -   wherein the secondary storage computing device is associated            with the secondary copy of data to communicatively couple to            a second client computing device in a second information            management system,        -   wherein a second storage manager autonomously manages the            second information management system including the second            client computing device, and        -   wherein the second storage manager, the second information            management system, and the second client computing device            are physically and logically separate from the respective            first storage manager, the first information management            system, and the first client computing device;    -   managing, by the first storage manager, a cross-system data        transfer operation to transmit the secondary copy of data        generated by the first client computing device to the second        client computing device in the second information management        system;    -   transmitting the secondary copy of data generated by the first        client computing device, according to the cross-system data        transfer operation, by the secondary storage computing device in        the first information management system to the second client        computing device in the second information management system;        and    -   wherein, while communicatively coupled to the secondary storage        computing device in the first information management system, the        second client computing device remains under autonomous        management by the second storage manager as a component of the        second information management system.

The method may further comprise: instructing the second client computingdevice, by the first storage manager, to communicatively decouple fromthe secondary storage computing device in the first informationmanagement system, while simultaneously the second client computingdevice remains under autonomous management by the second storage manageras a component of the second information management system. The methodmay further comprise: instructing the secondary storage computingdevice, by the first storage manager, to communicatively decouple fromthe second client computing device, while simultaneously the secondclient computing device remains under autonomous management by thesecond storage manager as a component of the second informationmanagement system. Further, the method wherein the cross-system datatransfer operation to transmit the secondary copy of data generated bythe first client computing device to the second client computing devicein the second information management system is based at least in part oninformation about the second client computing device received by thefirst storage manager from the second storage manager, wherein theinformation is insufficient for the first storage manager to manage thesecond client computing device as a component of the first informationmanagement system, and further wherein the second client computingdevice remains under autonomous management by the second storage manageras a component of the second information management system.

A system according to an illustrative embodiment may comprise:

-   -   at least one processor;    -   in a second information management system managed by a second        storage manager, means for managing, by the second storage        manager, a second client computing device as a component of the        second information management system,        -   wherein the means for managing is based at least in part on            a second instance of an information management software that            executes on the client computing device;    -   means for executing, by the second client computing device in        response to instructions from the second storage manager, a        second instance of the information management software;    -   means for transmitting information about the second client        computing device, by the second storage manager to a first        storage manager that manages a first information management        system,        -   wherein the information is sufficient for a cross-system            data transfer operation to be managed by the first storage            manager and        -   wherein the information is also insufficient for the first            storage manager to manage the client computing device as a            component of the first information management system; and    -   means for establishing a communication path between the second        client computing device in the second information management        system and the first storage manager,        -   wherein the communication path is based at least in part on:            -   (i) the executing of the second instance of the                information management software by the second client                computing device and            -   (ii) the information about the second client computing                device,            -   wherein the client computing device remains under                autonomous management by the second storage manager as a                component of the second information management system.

The system may further comprise: means for requesting, by the secondstorage manager from the first storage manager, the cross-system datatransfer of a secondary copy of data generated by a first clientcomputing device in the first information management system to thesecond client computing device in the second information managementsystem. The system may further comprise: means for receiving a secondarycopy of data generated in the first information management system by thesecond client computing device in the second information managementsystem and from a component of the first information management system,wherein while receiving, the client computing device remains underautonomous management by the second storage manager as a component ofthe second information management system. The system further wherein thefirst instance of the information management software shares a set ofbinary files that are used by the second instance.

According to an illustrative embodiment, a computer-readable medium,excluding transitory propagating signals, storing instructions that,when executed by at least one computing device, cause the computingdevice to perform operations, may comprise:

-   -   in a first information management system, managing by a first        storage manager: (i) a first client computing device as a        component of the first information management system and (ii) a        secondary copy of data generated by the first client computing        device;    -   instructing, by the first storage manager, a second client        computing device in a second information management system to        communicatively couple to a secondary storage computing device        in the first information management system, wherein the        secondary storage computing device is associated with the        secondary copy of data generated by the first client computing        device;    -   managing, by the first storage manager, a cross-system data        transfer operation to transmit the secondary copy of data        generated by the first client computing device to the second        client computing device in the second information management        system;    -   transmitting the secondary copy of data generated by the first        client computing device, according to the cross-system data        transfer operation, by the secondary storage computing device in        the first information management system to the second client        computing device in the second information management system;        and    -   wherein, while communicatively coupled to the secondary storage        computing device in the first information management system, the        second client computing device remains under autonomous        management by the second storage manager as a component of the        second information management system.

The computer-readable medium further wherein the managing by the firststorage manager is based at least in part on an indirect communicationpath between the first storage manager and the second client computingdevice, wherein the communication path comprises the second storagemanager. The computer-readable medium further wherein the communicationpath is further based at least in part on information about the secondclient computing device received by the first storage manager from thesecond storage manager, wherein the information is insufficient for thefirst storage manager to manage the second client computing device as acomponent of the first information management system, and furtherwherein the second client computing device remains under autonomousmanagement by the second storage manager as a component of the secondinformation management system.

According to an illustrative embodiment, a method may comprise:

-   -   in a second information management system managed by a second        storage manager, managing, by the second storage manager, a        client computing device as a component of the second information        management system, wherein the managing is based at least in        part on a second instance of an information management software        that executes on the client computing device;    -   instructing, by the second storage manager, the client computing        device to execute a first instance of the information management        software such that the first instance and the second instance        are based on a set of binary files stored on the client        computing device; and    -   wherein, based on executing the first instance of the        information management software: (i) the client computing device        communicatively couples to a component of a first information        management system for a cross-system data transfer operation,        wherein a first storage manager manages the first information        management system, (ii) but the client computing device is not        managed by the first storage manager as a component of the first        information management system, (iii) while simultaneously the        client computing device remains under autonomous management by        the second storage manager as a component of the second        information management system.

The method may further comprise: instructing the client computingdevice, by the second storage manager, to stop executing the firstinstance of the information management software, causing the clientcomputing device to communicatively decouple from the first storagemanager, while simultaneously the client computing device remains underautonomous management by the second storage manager as a component ofthe second information management system. The method may furthercomprise: based on executing the first instance of the informationmanagement software, receiving data, by the client computing device froma component of the first information management system that is managedby the first storage manager, wherein the received data is a secondarycopy of data of another client computing device in the first informationmanagement system. The method wherein the receiving of the data from thecomponent of the first information management system results from across-system data transfer operation managed by the first storagemanager. The method wherein the cross-system data transfer is invoked bythe first storage manager. The method wherein the cross-system datatransfer is invoked by the first storage manager as a restore operation.The method wherein the cross-system data transfer is invoked by thesecond storage manager. The method wherein the cross-system datatransfer is invoked by the second storage manager as a restoreoperation. The method wherein the secondary copy of data in the firstinformation management system is requested by the second storage managerfrom the first storage manager.

Terminology

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,”“coupled,” or any variant thereof means any connection or coupling,either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling orconnection between the elements can be physical, logical, or acombination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,”and words of similar import, when used in this application, refer tothis application as a whole and not to any particular portions of thisapplication. Where the context permits, words in the above DetailedDescription using the singular or plural number may also include theplural or singular number respectively. The word “or” in reference to alist of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretationsof the word: any one of the items in the list, all of the items in thelist, and any combination of the items in the list. Likewise the term“and/or” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all of thefollowing interpretations of the word: any one of the items in the list,all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in thelist.

Depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events, or functions of anyof the algorithms described herein can be performed in a differentsequence, can be added, merged, or left out altogether (e.g., not alldescribed acts or events are necessary for the practice of thealgorithms). Moreover, in certain embodiments, acts or events can beperformed concurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing,interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores or onother parallel architectures, rather than sequentially.

Systems and modules described herein may comprise software, firmware,hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or hardwaresuitable for the purposes described herein. Software and other modulesmay reside on servers, workstations, personal computers, computerizedtablets, PDAs, and other devices suitable for the purposes describedherein. Software and other modules may be accessible via local memory,via a network, via a browser, or via other means suitable for thepurposes described herein. Data structures described herein may comprisecomputer files, variables, programming arrays, programming structures,or any electronic information storage schemes or methods, or anycombinations thereof, suitable for the purposes described herein. Userinterface elements described herein may comprise elements from graphicaluser interfaces, command line interfaces, and other suitable interfaces.

Further, the processing of the various components of the illustratedsystems can be distributed across multiple machines, networks, and othercomputing resources. In addition, two or more components of a system canbe combined into fewer components. Various components of the illustratedsystems can be implemented in one or more virtual machines, rather thanin dedicated computer hardware systems. Likewise, the data repositoriesshown can represent physical and/or logical data storage, including, forexample, storage area networks or other distributed storage systems.Moreover, in some embodiments the connections between the componentsshown represent possible paths of data flow, rather than actualconnections between hardware. While some examples of possibleconnections are shown, any of the subset of the components shown cancommunicate with any other subset of components in variousimplementations.

Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products. Each block of the flow chart illustrationsand/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computerprogram instructions. Such instructions may be provided to a processorof a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such thatthe instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer orother programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the acts specified in the flow chart and/or block diagramblock or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in anon-transitory computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to operate in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also beloaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatusto cause a series of operations to be performed on the computer or otherprogrammable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process suchthat the instructions which execute on the computer or otherprogrammable apparatus provide steps for implementing the acts specifiedin the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further implementations of theinvention.

These and other changes can be made to the invention in light of theabove Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain examples of the invention, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theinvention can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its specific implementation, while still beingencompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the invention to the specific examplesdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also allequivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under theclaims.

To reduce the number of claims, certain aspects of the invention arepresented below in certain claim forms, but the applicant contemplatesthe various aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. Forexample, while only one aspect of the invention is recited as ameans-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C sec. 112(f) (AIA), otheraspects may likewise be embodied as a means-plus-function claim, or inother forms, such as being embodied in a computer-readable medium. Anyclaims intended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. §112(f) will begin withthe words “means for”, but use of the term “for” in any other context isnot intended to invoke treatment under 35 U.S.C. §112(f). Accordingly,the applicant reserves the right to pursue additional claims afterfiling this application, in either this application or in a continuingapplication.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: (i) a first informationmanagement system comprising: a first storage manager, comprising one ormore processors and computer-readable memory, configured for managingthe first information management system, a data storage devicecomprising a secondary copy of data that originated in the firstinformation management system, and a first computing device associatedwith the data storage device; (ii) a second information managementsystem comprising: a second storage manager, comprising one or moreprocessors and computer-readable memory, configured for managing thesecond information management system, and a second computing devicecomprising: (a) a first executable version of an information managementsoftware, and (b) a second executable version of the informationmanagement software, and (c) shared binaries for instantiating the firstexecutable version of the information management software and the secondexecutable version of the information management software; wherein thesecond storage manager is further configured to: (A) manage storageoperations for data generated by the second computing device executingthe second executable version of the information management software,and (B) instruct the second computing device to execute, based on theshared binaries, the first executable version of the informationmanagement software to receive data from the first storage managementsystem, and (C) transmit to the first storage manager information aboutthe second computing device; wherein the first storage manager isfurther configured to, based on the information about the secondcomputing device received from the second storage manager, manage a datatransfer of the secondary copy of data to the second computing deviceexecuting the first executable version of the information managementsoftware; wherein the first storage manager lacks an ability to managestorage operations for data generated by the second computing device;and wherein after the data transfer is completed, at least one of: (I)the first storage manager is further configured to communicativelydecouple the second computing device from the first computing device,and (II) the second storage manager is further configured to instructthe second computing device to stop executing the first executableversion of the information management software.
 2. The system of claim 1wherein to manage the data transfer of the secondary copy of data to thesecond computing device executing the first executable version of theinformation management software, the first storage manager is furtherconfigured to instruct the first computing device to transfer thesecondary copy of data from the first information management system tothe second computing device.
 3. The system of claim 1 wherein the secondcomputing device is configured to use the first executable version ofthe information management software at least to communicate with thefirst computing device to receive the data transfer of the secondarycopy of data from the first information management system; and whereinthe second computing device is further configured to at least one of (i)reject and (ii) disregard, information management commands from thefirst storage manager other than instructions for data transfers to thesecond computing device, including the instructions for the datatransfer.
 4. The system of claim 1 wherein the information about thesecond computing device transmitted by the second storage manager to thefirst storage manager comprises a host identifier and a clientidentifier.
 5. The system of claim 1 wherein the first informationmanagement system lacks an information management policy in respect tothe second computing device.
 6. The system of claim 1 wherein the firststorage manager is further configured to request the second storagemanager to instruct the second computing device to execute the firstexecutable version of the information management software.
 7. The systemof claim 1 wherein the first storage manager is further configured toperform at least one of (i) activate and (ii) instruct the activationof, a communication path for the data transfer, wherein thecommunication path is configured between the first computing device inthe first information management system and the second computing devicein the second information management system.
 8. The system of claim 1wherein the second storage manager is further configured to relay to thesecond computing device instructions for the data transfer, which areissued by the first storage manager and targeted to the second computingdevice.
 9. A method comprising: configuring a first informationmanagement system comprising: a first storage manager, comprising one ormore processors and computer-readable memory, configured for managingthe first information management system, a data storage devicecomprising a secondary copy of data that originated in the firstinformation management system, and a first computing device associatedwith the data storage device; configuring a second informationmanagement system comprising: a second storage manager, comprising oneor more processors and computer-readable memory, configured for managingthe second information management system, and a second computing devicecomprising: (a) a first executable version of an information managementsoftware, and (b) a second executable version of the informationmanagement software, and (c) shared binaries for instantiating the firstexecutable version of the information management software and the secondexecutable version of the information management software, wherein thesecond storage manager manages storage operations for data generated bythe second computing device executing the second executable version ofthe information management software; instructing, by the second storagemanager, the second computing device to execute, based on the sharedbinaries, the first executable version of the information managementsoftware to receive data from the first storage management system, andtransmitting, by the second storage manager to the first storage managerinformation about the second computing device; based on the informationabout the second computing device received from the second storagemanager, managing, by the first storage manager, a data transfer of thesecondary copy of data to the second computing device executing thefirst executable version of the information management software, whereinthe managing comprises one of (i) activating and (ii) instructing theactivation of, a communication path for the data transfer, wherein thecommunication path is configured between the first computing device inthe first information management system and the second computing devicein the second information management system, and wherein the firststorage manager lacks an ability to manage storage operations for datagenerated by the second computing device.
 10. The method of claim 9further comprising: after the data transfer is completed, at least oneof: (I) communicatively decoupling, by the first storage manager, thesecond computing device from the first computing device, and (II)instructing, by the second storage manager, the second computing deviceto stop executing the first executable version of the informationmanagement software
 11. The method of claim 9 wherein the informationabout the second computing device transmitted by the second storagemanager to the first storage manager comprises a host identifier and aclient identifier.
 12. The method of claim 9 wherein the firstinformation management system lacks an information management policy inrespect to the second computing device.
 13. The method of claim 9wherein the first storage manager requests the second storage manager toinstruct the second computing device to execute the first executableversion of the information management software.
 14. The method of claim9 wherein the second storage manager relays to the second computingdevice instructions for the data transfer, which are issued by the firststorage manager and targeted to the second computing device; and whereinthe second computing device at least one of (i) rejects and (ii)disregards, information management commands from the first storagemanager other than instructions for data transfers to the secondcomputing device, including the instructions for the data transfer. 15.A method comprising: executing, by a first computing device, a firstexecutable version of an information management software; executing, bythe first computing device, a second executable version of theinformation management software, based on shared binaries forinstantiating the first executable version of the information managementsoftware and the second executable version of the information managementsoftware, wherein when using the second executable version of theinformation management software, the first computing device operates asa component of a second information management system that is managed bya second storage manager, wherein the second information managementsystem comprises at least one policy for protecting data generated bythe first computing device; managing, by a first storage manager thatmanages a first information management system, a data transfer of asecondary copy of data from the first information management system tothe first computing device executing the first executable version of theinformation management software based on the shared binaries, whereininformation about the first computing device received by the firststorage manager from the second storage manager, enables the datatransfer to proceed, and wherein the first information management systemlacks a policy for protecting the data generated by the first computingdevice; and after the data transfer completes, at least one of: (I)communicatively decoupling, by the first storage manager, the firstcomputing device from the first information management system, and (II)instructing the first computing device, by the second storage manager,to stop executing the first executable version of the informationmanagement software.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein the datatransfer is at least a part of a restore operation managed by the firststorage manager.
 17. The method of claim 15 wherein the data transfer isa restore operation managed by the first storage manager, and whereinmetadata resulting from the restore operation is generated in and storedby the first information management system.
 18. The method of claim 15wherein the first executable version of the information managementsoftware executes on the first computing device based on one or moreinstructions received by the first computing device from the secondstorage manager.
 19. The method of claim 15 wherein the first executableversion of the information management software executes on the firstcomputing device based on one or more instructions initiated by thefirst storage manager and transmitted to the first computing device bythe second storage manager.
 20. The method of claim 15 wherein theinformation about the first computing device received by the firststorage manager from the second storage manager comprises at least oneof a host identifier and a client identifier.